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THE 

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 

OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 

FRYEBXJIia, ME., 

WITH THE 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 



By. rev SAMUEL SOUTHER, 



OF WORCESTER, MASS. 



WORCESTEK: 

P^ilNTED BY TYLER & SEAGKAVI, 

Spy Job Office, 212 Main Street. 



JRYEBURG CENTENNIAL. 



The citizens of Fryeburg feeling that an event so important 
as the settlement of the Saco Valley, was worthy of due com- 
memoration, " at their annual meeting held April 6, 1863, 
chose the following persons to make preparations for the Cen- 
tential celebration of the first settlement of said town, viz : — 
Asa Cliarles, Isaac Frye, Caleb K. Farrington, David A. Brad- 
ley, Wm. A. Stevens, Eben. J. Fessenden, Chas. Abbott, 
Joseph Chandler, H. D. E. Hutchings, Enoch C. Wiley, Mar- 
shall Walker." 

The Committee was organized soon after, by choice of Isaac 
Frye, Esq., as Chairman, and Hon. George B. Barrows, as 
Secretary. 

In selecting an Orator for the Day, their choice fell naturally 
upon Hon. Wm. P. Fessenden, the distinguished Senator from 
Maine, and grandson of Fryeburg's first minister. Mr. Fes- 
senden signified his willingness to accept the service, but un- 
expected business called him to Washington, and Rev. S. 
Souther of Worcester, was invited to prepare an Historical 
Address for the occasion. 

The day fixed for the Centennial Exercises, Aug. 20, opened 
most auspiciously, amid the ringing of bells and a profuse dis- 
play of the* Stars and Stripes at different points through the 
village. The National Ensign floated also from the flag staff 
on Pine Hill, from the grove on its northerly slope prepared 
as the place of assembling, and from the old Academy ground 
at its foot. 



At an early hour the people of the valley began to assemble, 
and soon after ten o'clock, a procession was formed at the 
Congregational Meeting-House, under the direction of Wm. 
C. Towle, M. D., Chief Marshal, assisted by Carlton H. 
Walker, John Towle, and Chas. H. Buswell, as Aids. Pre- 
ceded by the North Bridgton Brass Band, and escorted by a 
detachment of returned soldiers under command of iiieut. 
How, the procession passed up Main St. to a beautiful grove 
on the northerly slope of Pine Hill, commanding a full view 
of the village, the valley, and the unrivalled sweep of moun- 
tain heights surrounding it. Here had already gathered an 
audience of more than a thousand people, while the platform 
was graced by the presence of the venerable men of the 
region, Gov. J. A. Andrew of Mass., Hon. Wm. Willis, Pres- 
ident of the Maine Historical Society, Col. Wm. R. Frye of 
Lewiston, E. W. Evans, Esq. of Chicago, 111., Rev. Jacob 
Chapman of Marshall, 111., Dr. I. N. True of Bethel, Me., and 
others. 

After appropriate music by the Band, Asa Charles, Esq. 
was introduced as President of the Day, and extended glowing 
words of welcome to the assembly in the following address. 

Welcome ! Welcome ! ! Welcome home, — Children of Frye- 
burg, — children of the children of Fryeburg, — all who love 
any of the children of the sons or daughters of Fryeburg, — a 
cordial, a hearty welcome home. 

Such welcome as gives the mother to her loved ones, 
returned from long and perilous absence ; — such greeting as 
awaits earth's wanderers at their home in Heaven, — such wel- 
come, such greeting, so far as mortals can give and appreciate, 
give we to you this morning. 

Here on the banks of the silvery Saco, here amid this pan- 
orama of mountain, valley, lake and river, rivalled by few in 
grandeur and beauty, — here in the home of the mighty 
Pequawket, awhile before driven out by the brave Captain 
Lovewell and his little band of fearless followers, — here came 
our fathers, — here they made a home for themselves and their 



loved ones, — here they reared the temple to God, Jehovah, 
and by its side the humbler temple of human learning, 
together to teach the way through earth to Heaven. 

They reclaimed the wild forest, they drove out the wild 
beast, — and instead of the cry of the catamount and the pan- 
ther, the growl of the wolf, and the startling terrific war- 
whoop of the Indian, falls softly on the ear, the lullaby of 
the mother and the half asleep cooing of children. 

And now, after the lapse of one hundred years, you have 
come up hither to look upon the places where dwelt our 
fathers. 

We who have remained around the old hearth-stone, hare 
kept the fire burning there, have kept " the light in the win- 
dow for you." 

And now, with joy for your successes, — with the tear of 
sympathy for your griefs and your sorrows, we bid you all a 
most hearty, a most cordial welcome home. 

The following lines, written for the occasion, were sung with 
fine effect to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne," the band accom- 
panying. 

Wherever from their mountain drifts, 

New England's rivers sweep, 
Like emeralds set in rocky rifts, 

A thousand valleys sleep. 
And, lovely as the loveliest, 

Her circling hills between. 
Lies in the river's arms at rest 

The Saco's valley green. 

A hundred years their course have run, 

Since, on the Saco's strand, 
There stood beneath the summer sun 

A hard}" little band. 
The broad blue sky above them bent, 

The fields smiled fresh below ; 
While with the surging pine trees blent 

The river's restless flow. 



6 

Where Saco winds its silent tide ; 

Where Lovewell's waters shine ; 
From every breezy mountain side 

Spolie messages divine ; — 
" Here build your homes, my hand shall bless 

The seed your toil bestows, 
So shall ye ' make the wilderness 

To blossom as the rose ? ' " 

Their heritage is ours to-day ; 

They till its fields no more ; 
Yet still the river's winding way 

Is lovely as of yore. 
Each breeze that blows from southern groves 

The cannon's echoes fill; 
Tet, on our hills, the corn field waves 

Its tasselled greenness still. 

Oh, long the day ere War's dark drops 

Shall dim our laixghing sky ! 
Long ere our valley's emerald slopes 

Shall learn the ruby's dye ! 
God grant no other blast may smite 

New England's tossing pines, 
Than when His rolling thunder's might 

Sweeps down their broken lines ! 

But raise once more the joyous strain! 

No gloom be ours to-day, 
Loved voices that we hear again 

Should bid our hearts be gay. 
Old Fryeburg sends a welcome out 

To all who hither roam ! 
Again ! again ! the answering shout 

That cheers our valley home ! 

Prayer was offered by Rev. D. B. Sewall, the fourth 
successor of Rev. Mr. Fessenden, as mmister of Fryeburg, 
then followed the Historical Address. 



HEV. MR SOUTHER'S ADDRESS. 



8 

Fbyebukg, Me., Aug. 27, 1863. 
Kev. Samuel Souther, 

Dear Sir: — The undersigned liaving been appointed a Committee for 
tliat purpose, respectfully request you, to furnish us for the press, a copy 
of your very interesting and able address, delivered at the Centennial 
Celebration of the settlement of Fryeburg, Aug. 20th, 1863. 

In asking this favor, we but expresss the earnest desire of those who 
listened to you on that occasion, and we are sure that if published, the 
address will be deemed a document of permanent historic interest and 
value, by all the children of Fryeburg, and many others. 
Very respectfully, &c., cfec, 

D. B. SEWALL, 

B. P. SNOW, 

ISRAEL B. BRADLEY, 



The following reminiscences of Fryeburg were arranged at a late hour, 
to supply the place of an Oration from one whose eminent ability and 
position would have worthily honored the Centennial celebration of a 
town, the birth-place of his distinguished father, and the scene of his 
revered grand-father's ministerial labors. They have passed through the 
press amid the unexpected labors of Camp life. Only such time has 
been given to their revision as could be redeemed fi-om the harrassing 
cares attending the organization and discipline of a company in a new 
Regiment of Volunteers. This must account for any inaccuracies, if 
such exist, and for many serious omissions which more favorable circum- 
stances might have supplied. 

The Appendix has been enlarged beyond what might be expected, lest 
the casualties of war might prevent the accomplishment of the long 
cherished design of preparing a full history of my native town. 

With many thanks to friends who have kindly furnished historical ma- 
terial, (among whom special mention should be made of J. R. Osgood of 
Boston, Dr. Bradley, Asa Charles, Esq., Capt. Frye, and Col. James 
Walker of Fryeburg, together with the ever courteous Librarian of the 
American Antiquarian Society, S. Haven, Esq. of Worcester,) this humble 
contribution to our local history is commended to all who love the olden 
time, — and especially to all the sons and daughters of Pequawket. 

Camp Wool, Worcester, Mass., Feb., 1864. 



ADDRESS. 



The valley of the Saco keeps to-day a second Centennial 
Anniversary. The first, thirty-eight years ago, in our child- 
hood known as " Pangus^ day^'' commemorated Lovewell's 
Fight. At a time of unwonted peace, the country enjoying 
what was justly termed "the era of good feeling," our fathers 
celebrated the hundredth anniversary of that deadly conflict 
with the savages. To-day, in the midst of a gigantic war, we 
come to hail the advent to these plains of civilization and the 
arts of peace. 

Such are always the sudden transitions of human affairs. 
In our land, especially, almost as rapid and striking as the 
changes of our climate, are the variations in our political skies. 
Like the fickle current of our Saco, the tide of social life 
among us runs never evenly. Ugly rapids disturb our navi- 
gation, and boisterous waterfalls threaten to break it off en- 
tirely. But they only make more placid the long reaches of 
quiet water intervening. The bow upon the retreating cloud 
makes us forget the discomforts and even dangers of the 
storm. 

"Were it not for the assurance of a happy issue to these try- 
ing days through which our land is struggling, it would be 
unwarranted trifling to spend these hours in reminiscences of 
our early history. To what purpose is it that there is a past 
worthy of our study, worthy of our gratitude, unless there is 
to be a future worthy of our hopes. The faithful, hearty per- 
formance of present duty is, under the divine blegsing, our 
only assurance of such a future, and we would make the les- 
2 



10 

sons of the past teach us present duty. The whisper of the 
fathers' voices shall confirm our sometimes faltering faith, 
shall incite to new efforts our sometimes lagging patrotism. 

We have come together to-day, sons and daughters of old 
Pequawket, to call up the memories of those men who nobly 
fulfilled their duty in opening to us and to the world this 
beautiful valley. 

In an important sense this is not a town celebration. Frye- 
burg can more properly keep her hundredth birth-day in 
1877, a hundred years from her incorporation. It is the set- 
tlement of the whole valley that we commemorate. It was 
the opening of this whole region, far in the wilderness among 
the mountains, as an outpost of civilization, a rallying point 
for younger settlements, a half way house to the towns on the 
upper Androscoggin. The settlers of Bethel, Rumford and 
Andover, having a common origin with us, tarried here with 
their cousins to take breath, before plunging into the denser 
forests through which ran the Pequawket road up the Kezer 
valley to the North. 

Fryeburg can, without arrogant pretension, claim this pre- 
eminence. Her settlement was the first bold push into the 
interior of Maine, the first breaking away to any considerable 
distance from tide-water and the coast-wise communication 
with Massachusetts. 

Windham, settled in 1735, and grown to be a town the year 
before our settlement, was less than a score of miles from 
Casco Bay ; and Standish, settled three years before us, was 
about the same distance. 

The situation of Maine at the time of our settlement is 
worthy of a passing notice. Without adopting the newly 
vamped romances which strive to exalt Popham's abortive 
efforts at the mouth of the Kennebec above the Pilgrim found- 
ations laid at Plymouth, we still find much of thrilling inter- 
est in the real history of our coast. 

Prom York and Kittery eastward, many a feeble hamlet 
along the seaboard had been devastated by the Indian torch ; 



11 

and when their fugitive families had returned to rear again 
their desolated household altars, it was at the expense of new 
perils, and frequently of death or a lingering captivity. So 
frequent and so merciless had been these savage inroads, that 
Sullivan computes the inhabitants of Maine in 1750 at less 
than ten thousand souls. Scarce a half dozen settlements at 
that time had been advanced beyond ready access from the 
sea. 

In York Co., Sanford, (then called Phillipstown, settled in 
1740,) Lebanon, (or Towwoh, 1743,) and Buxton, (Narra- 
gansett No. 1, 1749,) were of this class, and were each within 
easy hailing distance of some comparatively powerful seaboard 
neighbor. Windham, New Gloucester, Pownalboro, Bowdoin- 
ham and Topsham, and farther eastward Warren, complete 
the list of what could be considered in any sense inland towns. 
And yet, scattered and weak as were the people, they were in- 
domitable in their resolution, and never faltered in meeting 
the calls made upon them for military service. The wonder- 
ful reduction of Louisburg in 1745, was accomplished by Sir 
Wm. Pepperell of Kittery, with a force, small as it was, quite 
disproportionately made up, as Sullivan claims, of Maine's 
hardy yeomanry and seamen. 

Let us glance briefly at the events immediately preceding 
the coming of our fathers to this valley. They bore a worthy 
part in those stiring scenes, and the results had an intimate 
connection with their settlement here. 

The ten years from 1750 to 1760, were of momentous im- 
portance in American history. They changed the state and 
destiny of the whole continent. During two-thirds of this 
period, reverses to the English arms followed each other in 
quick succession, till the destruction of the colonies seemed 
inevitable. France ever crafty and aspiring, grasped at the 
dominion of all North America. She held the mouths of its 
two mightiest rivers, the St. Lawrencq. and the Mississippi, 
and with stealthy step was pushing a line of wilderness forti- 
fications, which should unite their head waters, and bind as 
with anaconda fold the long coast-line colonies of the English. 



12 

In Nova Scotia, on the St. Francis, the Sorell, the St. Law- 
rence, at Niagara, Detroit, DuQuesnc, and at all available 
intervening points, the French Jesuits, always indefatigable 
and unscrupulous, were instigating their credulous Indian 
converts to the destruction of the hated heretics. With 
inexorable gripe the folds of the serpent were gathering, and 
threatened to press out the very life of the infant colonies. 
Desperate efforts were made to break the coil, but in vain. 

Braddock, in the wilderness defiles of the Monongahela, paid 
with his life the penalty of his self-will and supercilious con- 
tempt of Washington's counsels. The flower of New Eng 
land fell with the gallant Howe in the mad attack upon 
Ticonderoga. The massacre at Fort William Henry clothed 
many a household in mourning. 

We might suppose that despair would chill every heart, and 
the dark cloud of coming destruction darken all the land. 
But our fathers had been under too stern a discipline to think 
of losing heart even amid such crushing reverses. Pitt, Eng- 
land's great commoner, was called to the aid of the stagger- 
ing government, and became the ruling spirit of the war. The 
confidence he reposed in the colonies was justified by their 
hearty response in the raising of fresh troops from their deci- 
mated population. Young British commanders consented to 
learn from our forest-trained warriors, and all along the ex- 
tended line victory followed their united counsels and efforts. 
The French were everywhere beaten back, till on the plains of 
Abraham, Wolfe's immortal victory settled the question of 
English supremacy in America. Feudalism and Rome had 
clutched the prize of this Western World. AVith almost su- 
perhuman efforts they had struggled to secure it. But it was 
wrested from their grasp. A pure faith and civil freedom was 
to be the inheritance which our fathers should transmit to us 
their children. 

The overthrow of j^ie French in Canada freed the frontier 
from Indian aggression. The immediate results were mani- 
fest in the impulse given to settlements everywhere. The 
energies of the people, quickened and developed by military 



13 

service, demanded wider scope. The experiences of the camp 
fitted them for a Hfe of exposure in new. forest homes, a life 
which is one long struggle with dangers and privations. Thus 
we find Maine increasing so rapidly in her population, that a 
roughly gathered census taken in 1764 gives her about 24,000 
inhabitants, nearly two and a half times as many as Sullivan's 
computation for 1750. 

The towns of eastern Massachusetts near the mouth of the 
Merrimac, shared in this new zeal for emigration. Thirty 
years before, at the close of Love well's war, they had sent out 
a strong colony to occupy the fertile intervales at Pcnacook ; 
and now from both, from the vigorous inland daughter and 
from the mother towns near the sea, strong men and resolute 
women were ready to bear the dangers of a settlement three 
times as remote. 

Their leader, Col. Frye, was worthy of the enterprise. 
From liis earliest years he had been a soldier of the forest. 
He had command of a regiment at the surrender of Fort Wm. 
Henry. Strongly dissenting from its capitulation, he offered 
to go out with his single regiment and drive back the French 
and Indians. But this privilege was denied him. His suffer- 
ings and escape after having been stripped by the Indians, his 
three days run through the forests, till torn and haggard and 
for the time insane, he reached Fort Edward on the Hudson, 
are more like romance than veritable history. For these suf- 
ferings together with his eminent services, the General Court 
of Massachusetts was pleased to grant him the privilege of 
selecting '• a township six miles square on either side of the 
Saco river between the Great Ossapee and the White moun- 
tains, any where within those limits where he should not in- 
terfere with previous grants." * 

Capt. Wm. Stark, brother of the afterward hero of Ben- 
nington, and with him an officer in Roger's rangers, acted as 
guide to Col. Frye. Tradition says that they first took a view 
of the valley from the hill which ever since has very properly 
borne the name of Stark's hill. 

*From act of General Court, March 3, 1762. 



14 

An unpublished poem attempts to picture the scene pre- 
sented them — 

" The valley in its unshorn glory spread 

Far, far beneath them, while the Saco led 

Its mazy wanderings onward now, now turning, 

Like some coquettish girl, roguishly spurning, 

And then, be sure, encouraging again 

The awkward suit of some poor, blushing swain. 

******* 
One forest all unbroke, save where the sight 
Fell on Chocorua's crags or Kearsarge's heights, 
Or where the silver lakelets gleamed in their summer sheen 
Or the dewy meadows glistened in their robes of living green."* 

How much the poetry of their outlook upon the valley af- 
fected the two forest rangers we know not. That Col. Frye 
could write creditable stanzas we have proof in lines composed 
years afterward. But the Colonel was more than a poet. He 
was a skillful surveyor and practical farmer, and satisfied 
himself by careful explorations that here was a region every 
way proper for a township, and so made his selection. 

The grant was made March 3, 1762, Its terms similar to 
all others proceeding from the General Court of Massachusetts, 
show the careful legislation of our fathers, that new towns 
should not be left to semi-barbarism for lack of those institu- 
tions indispensable to social improvement, — the school, the 
church and the settled ministry. One sixty-fourth of the 
township is set apart for each of these objects, and one still 
farther was reserved for Harvard College. f 

It is a curious fact, and one fast dying out of memory, that 
the North-west corner of Fryeburg was originally on Green 
Hill, on the supposition that the New Hampshire line was 
some miles west of its present location. When it was dis- 
covered that New Hampshire had just claims upon the North- 
west corner ot the township amounting to 4,147 acres, a new 

*From Poem at the Semi-Centennial celebration of Fryeburg Academy, 
1842. 

t See Appendix A. 



15 

grant was made by the General Court of a like number of 
acres to the North, called Fryeburg Addition. The tract in- 
cludes the beautiful valley of the Cold river, and was incor- 
porated by the name of Stow, in 1834. 

Few towns were settled as promptly as Fryeburg, after the 
grant to its proprietor. The same year, (1762) some of its 
future inhabitants came with their cattle from Concord, N. H. 
and comm^iced their clearings on the spot where now stands 
the village, and from the meadow secured a winter's supply of 
hay for their cattle. From this fact they claimed the settle- 
ment as commencing that year. And the old sign-board of 
the Osgood tavern bore with the Eagle, the emblem of its 
early patriotism, the date 1762. The cattle were left for the 
winter in charge of Nathaniel Merrill, John Stevens and 
" Limbo," — the irrepressible African figuring thus early in 
our history. 

It was not wholly a lonely winter to the herdsmen, for the 
people of Gorham and Falmouth kept the same winter above 
two hundred head of cattle and some dozen horses, on the 
large meadows to the Bast and North. Many anecdotes are 
told of their winter experiences, but time will not allow of 
their introduction. 

In 1763 came the settlers with their families, and this des- 
ignates the true time of settlement, for surely it is the intro- 
duction of families, not cattle, that should be commemorated. 
The strong handed men who the previous year had broke in 
upon the wilderness, the trio who kept their lonely guard over 
the cattle through a Pequawket winter, though deserving of 
mention, cannot press their claims as settlers. It is when 
woman and the little ones, the mother with the children, come 
and bring into the forest cabin the blessed institution of the 
family, and make even the wilderness a home for man, — it is 
then that the settlement commences. 

And who were the first comers to the valley, and what are 
their claims to our grateful remembrance ? Some were 
townsmen of the relicts of Lovewell's fight, and their childish 
fancies were shaped by the oft-told stories and plaintive songs, 



16 

which kept alive the memory of that sad day. Others had 
cowered beside their mothers at Penacook, when word of the 
Bradley massacre swept through the infant settlement. They 
had looked upon the bleeding bodies of five young men 
brought from the deadly ambuscade. Growing to manhood, 
they were ready to follow the merciless savages to the death, 
and enlisted again and again in the successive wars with the 
Indians and French. Some of them bore the scar%of wounds 
received in numerous conflicts with the red man, while follow- 
ing the indomitable Rogers along Champlain and the rivers of 
the North, tracking the wily foe through snowy thickets and 
over ice-bound lakes. And when not engaged in warlike ex- 
peditions, they found intervals in their rude husbandry to 
scour the wilderness as hunters. The head waters of the 
Merrimac, Winnepesaukee Lake, the Bear-camp and the 
Mountains East and North, drew them naturally toAvards this 
valley, for so long a period the chosen hunting ground and 
home of the Pequawkets. 

The home of the Pequawkets ! Before attempting to fol- 
low the track of our fathers from the Merrimac hither, and in 
imagination build again their forest hamlet on these plains, 
how are we tempted to show the village of the simple Indian 
standing hard by the river at the foot of Pine hill, and mark 
how exactly fitted was this valley for his princely residence. 

The furs with which he lined his wigwam, were trophies of 
his conflicts with the bear and catamount on the mountains 
opposite. Through the forest stalked the moose, browsing 
upon the tender foliage. The deer grazed in the meadows. 
The otter, the beaver and various small animals of like habits, 
sported on the sedgy banks of the Saco and its tributaries, 
while trout and pickerel filled stream and pond, yielding a re- 
past which epicures might covet, and which so many of the 
species enjoy to this day. 

The very conformation of the valley fitted it for the easy 
supply of the Indian's wants; the river favored his lazy habits. 
Stepping into his canoe at his wigwam's door he floated slug- 
gishly along the gentle current, throwing his line into every 



17 

dark pool formed by the mazy windings of the stream, push- 
ing up the many ponds which first collect the waters of the 
radiating system of valleys north of us, and then add them to 
the Saco, trapping and hunting on their banks over a circuit 
of many miles, never obliged to leave his canoe but for a short 
distance, and quickly returning with new spoils. And so day 
after day gathering with easy labors supplies for weeks of in- 
dolent repose, he enters Lovewell's Pond, across which pad- 
dling his well-loaded canoe, he lands within less than two miles 
of his starting place. 

Paradise of luxurious laziness ! valley of delights to the 
indolent red man ! Can it be that it encourages and entails 
any thing of the same spirit among his successors ! 

However this may be with the present dwellers here, our 
fathers of the early days of Pequawket, " the first of times " 
as one of them quaintly expressed it, were not allowed to suffer 
from any such enervating influences. 

Hard work was before them, and most resolutely did they 
set about it. They were to change the wilderness to a fruit- 
ful field, and establish in the very lair of the savage, the insti- 
tutions of Christianity and the comforts of civilized life. 

During the summer of 1763, one Nathaniel Smith made his 
way through the wilderness with his family, and must be con- 
sidered the first settler of the town. There is in my posses- 
sion a lease granting him and his wife Ruth the half of Lot No. 
15 during their natural lives, free of rent. Gen. Frye gives 
the Lease, Sept. 23, 1765, " For and in consideration of the 
good will and affection I have and do bear to my friend 
Nathaniel Smith, &c.," showing his estimation of the family. 
Their son Jonathan fell in Montgomery's unsuccessful attack 
upon Quebec, a man of indomitable courage. When Capt. 
Hutchings asked him, "What shall I say to your father and 
mother?" "Tell 'em," said he, "that I wish I could have 
lived to whip the d — d Britishers." 

In November of the same year, 1763, came four citizens of 
Concord, N. H., with their famiUes, viz: Samuel Osgood, 
Moses Ames, John Evans, and Jedediah Spring ; and to these 
3 



18 

is due the honor of being the pioneers of civilization in the 
valley. These men had spent the Summer in preparing as far 
as possible for their residence, and towards winter they brought 
in their families to make the valley their home. 

David Evans, brother of John, and Nathaniel Merrill, two 
unmarried young men, formed part of the company. They 
camped one night in the woods, and the next morning found 
nearly six inches of snow on the ground — a cold welcome to 
the valley, almost as cheerless as the snowy shores of Ply- 
mouth gave the Pilgrim Fathers. 

From the papers of the late Lieut. James Walker, (of the 
Island,) I gather the following particulars which he noted down 
directly from Mrs. Evans, as he states, " one of the first four 
families who came to this town, wife of John Evans. The 
women of these families and their children came here on 
horseback from Concord, N. H. There were at that time no 
settlements between Fryeburg and Sanford, a distance of sixty 
miles, and no bridges across the streams and rivers. They 
lodged in the woods in a camp one night, and forded the 
streams on horseback. When they came to the great Ossipee 
in what is now the town of Cornish, the river being high, tliey 
had one tall horse that could carry them over without swim- 
ming. In that way they all crossed the river in safety, after 
which they camped for the night. Mrs. E. says that in cross- 
ing the river she sat on the horse the strongest way ! " (No 
time for squeamishness !) 

Maj. Samuel Osgood, the leader of this pioneer party, oc- 
cupied the ground where now stands the Oxford house. Here 
was for years the centre and rallying point of the settlement. 
His son, Lieut. James Osgood, erected the present house in 
1800. In Fryeburg's palmiest days as a thoroughfare to the 
Mountains in summer, and from the Coos country to Portland 
in winter, it was the most noted public house of the region. 
Among his numerous descendants, was the late Rev. Dr. 
Osgood, for half a century the pastor of the first church in 
Springfield, Mass., whose decease within the few months past, 



19 

disappoints us of the presence of one of Fryeburg's most 
honored sons. 

Moses Ames, who attained to the title of "Squire," built on 
the lot where the late Robert Bradley, Esq., lived. He be- 
came a man of some note, was Selectman, Representative to 
the General Court, &c. One of the first Board of Trustees 
of the Academy, he had the supervision of the beautiful build- 
ing during its erection in 1806, and as Mr. Bradley has said^ 
" watched the driving of every nail, and saw that not one was 
wasted." 

John Evans, in whose family was his brother David, made 
his home but a stone's throw from the street just below our 
place of assembling. A year or two after, he removed to the 
lot still occupied by his descendants, who claim that a part of 
their present residence was the first framed dwelling of the 
valley. In it was born the first male child of the settlement, 
the late Capt. William Evans, passing away eight years ago, 
respected and beloved, at the ripe age of 90 years. Longevity 
is a marked characteristic of the family. The mother, a sis- 
ter of Col. Thomas Stickney, one of Stark's Colonels at Ben- 
nington, a woman of rare fortitude and physical powers, 
reached 88 years. Mrs. Harmon, a daughter, 95 years. Mrs. 
Abigail Osgood, for many years the venerated mother of our 
village, 86. Mrs. John Stickney of Brownfield, 85. 

Jedediah Spring, the last of the four, lived for a time near 
Mr. Weston's. He soon after removed to a lot across the river 
in Conway, and is not reckoned as one of the dwellers in the 
" Seven Lots." The family name has passed from the town, 
but in Brownfield, in Saco and Portland, it is characterized 
by determined energy and business enterprise. 

Within two years of the first settlement, the two young 
men, Nathaniel Merrill and David Evans, who had so disin- 
terestedly lent assistance to the first comers, had each brought 
to the wilderness a wife, and with two other noted settlers, 
Capt. Timothy Walker and Col. David Page, constituted the 
"Seven Lots," a name which for many years designated the 
germ of our village. Capt. Walker occupied the lot first taken 



20 

up by John Evans, traces of the cellar are still visible near 
Asa Charles, Esqrs'. He is represented by Dr. Paul Coffin, 
who came from Buxton on a missionary tour to the settlement 
in 1768, as having on the intervale adjoining, "forty acres, 
corn, grass and English grain which are all rich. Two or three 
tons of hay was cut on one acre," " improvements surpris- 
ingly large considering they have done most of the work in 
three years." * 

Col. Page, for some years before removing to the other side 
of the river, lived near the head of the Main Street opening 
towards Portland, the ground now occupied by the Post Office. 
He, as well as Nathaniel Merrill, who built opposite the pres- 
ent Academy, had been of Rogers' rangers. Both had received 
wounds in the hard service. Both were men of note in the 
youthful settlement and in after days, Col. Page as a magis- 
trate, 'Squire Merrill as a Surveyor. Numberless anecdotes of 
their respective peculiarities and eccentricities have come down 
to us. Our space will not allow of their introduction. 

In 1766 came Lieut. Caleb Swan, and with him Mr. William 
Wiley, both from Andover. They came from Newburyport to 
Saco by water, and were three days forcing their way up the 
river to Fryeburg, spending of course two nights with scarce 
any shelter in the woods, and crossing the Great Ossipee with 
much difficulty by rafts. They brought in three cows, a yoke 
of oxen and a horse. 

Lieut. Swan had drawn a lot in the lower part of the town, 
but the difficulty of getting to it caused him to stop at what 
is now the Falls, then only a slight rapid in the river. Here 
he erected the first framed house in the town. On this ac- 
count and from its location as a kind of half-way house be- 
tween the two extremes of the settlement, (including parts of 
Conway,) it was a place of religious worship. Far better for 
the town had it been made its centre. 

* See Dr. Coffin's " Kide to Pigwacket," in Maine Historical Collections, 
Vol. 4. The pictures given by the good Doctor of the first settlers, are 
graphic and amusing. Either their hospitality or the fertility and beauty of 
the valley greatly charmed him. He terms it " the desirable rural retreat," 
♦' that land of delights," &c. 



21 

Lieut. Swan was a graduate of Harvard, a man of distin- 
guished ability in College. His wife was Dorothy Frye a 
niece of Col. Joseph. He was an officer in the French war. 
His son, of same name, was Paymaster General under Wash- 
ington's administration. The strictest integrity was charac- 
teristic of both father and son, and we may add is an heir- 
loom in the family. 

The winter of ^GQ, and the summer following, mark the 
period of greatest privation and suffering in the valley. The 
inhabitants sent to Concord through the wilderness on snow- 
shoes for food. It was hauled on hand-sleds the whole dis- 
tance, 80 miles. 

After planting, the next spring, four men were sent to Saco 
for supplies, expecting to be gone two weeks. When several 
days beyond the time had passed, the families met each even- 
ing at Maj. Osgood's to talk over their fate. One evening they 
had just concluded to send two men to search for the party, 
supposing they had been waylaid. " Hark," says one of the 
anxious company, and as they listened the faint sound of the 
paddles came through the still woods from Lovewell's Pond. 
It was bright moonlight, and they all hastened to the Pond, 
where was a joyful meeting. 

The shoulders of the men were worn through the skin by 
the severity of their labors. 

These were not the only instances in which resort was had 
to Concord on snow-shoes, and to Saco by batteaux to obtain 
supplies. At certain seasons the forests aided them, affording 
game, and the very tallest of hunting stories are told. But 
there were times when every resource failed, and for short 
periods they suffered for want of food. 

Hitherto there had been but one family below Lieut. Swan's, 
that of Mr. Moses Day, the date of whose coming I have not 
been able to determine. 

Mr. William Wiley, coming with the Lieut, in '66, settled the 
Jos. Colby place. The next year, '67, many families came. 
They were from Andover, Bradford, &c., Mass., and from 
Concord, N, H., met at Phillipstown or Sanford, from which 



22 

place Col. Frye had taken the first steps for a road by felUng 
the trees the whole distance. 

Among the accessions of this year were John Webster, Aaron 
Abbott, Stephen Knight, Daniel Farrington, the Walkers, — 
Lieut. Isaac, Lieut. John, Ezekiel, and two Samuels, — and 
probably Benj. Russell, Eben. Day and others. Menotomy 
was about this time settled by families from Andover, among 
which were those of Simon Frye, Wm. Holt, and others. 

Simon Frye, a nephew of Col. Joseph, was a man of rare 
prudence, honored as a deacon in the church, the first Repre- 
sentative to the General Court, and for many years Judge in 
the courts of the District. 

Ezekiel Walker lived near the Centre by Bear Pond, and 
was the first Inn-keeper licensed by the town. 'Squire William 
Russell married his widow and occupied his homestead. He 
was a graduate of Harvard, familiar witli the Latin to the last, 
also, a surveyor of high attainments in Mathematics. Many 
a boy, by the light of pitch wood knots in his large fireplace, 
was started in Arithmetic, and the brightest of them carried 
through the double rule of three. His was the first justice' 
court in the region, in which Dana and McGaw used to plead. 

Daniel Farrington was one of Roger's Rangers, of great 
strength and courage, distinguished as a hunter. He hauled 
400 lbs. of furs on a hand-sled to Concord to obtain supplies. 

Lieut. John Walker was one of the notabilities of the town. 
He was at Fort William Henry, afterwards at the taking of 
Quebec ; came through the wilderness to the head waters of 
the Androscoggin and followed the river to Brunswick, nearly 
perishing with hunger. Many anecdotes are told of his 
intrepidity, immense muscular strength and genuine good 
humor. 

It must be borne in mind that while Col. Frye is thus push- 
ing the settlement of his town towards the North and East, 
Capt. Henry Young Brown, from Haverhill, Mass., a man 
equally energetic, is occupying that part of the valley and 
some of the adjacent uplands, to the South-west. 

The same misapprehension respecting the New Hampshire 



23 

line, which carried the North-west corner of Fryeburg to 
Green Hill, made Capt. Brown's claim include a large share 
of Conway. 

In 1768 some dozen families had made their homes on this 
tract, among whom were the brothers, Benjamin and James 
Osgood, from Concord, brothers also of Maj. Samuel at Seven 
Lots ; two Dollars or Dolloffs, father and son, and two or 
three Walkers. Capt. Timothy Walker of the Seven Lots, had 
at this time a saw and grist mill at the outlet of what is still 
called Walker's Pond, the same privilege now improved by 
Hon. J. T. Chase of Conway. 

Capt. Brown occupied the fine bend in the river, a part of 
which still forms the farm of his great grandson, Joslma Os- 
good. He had built a residence near the spot where stands 
the farm house of Gov. Dana, Here he entertained Dr. Cof- 
fin during his missionary visit in '68, in a style that surprised 
and delighted the good doctor. He speaks of " Capt. Brown's 
high and clean room, which had five glass windows and was 
nearly half wainscotted. It struck me with pleasure at the 
entrance, as I doubt not it would any body else. Hence I 
called it Capt. Brown's HallJ' At his cousin John Webster's, 
the doctor enters in his Journal, "Drank a fine dish of tea, 
well suited with wheat bread and pumpkin pye." 

With such evidences of increasing luxury, we must consider 
the days of privation and suffering past ! 

At Capt. Brown's, good parson Coffin met another visitor, 
who accompanied him on his return down the river. This 
was Dr. Joseph Emery, a young physician who had been called 
from Canterbury, N. H., to attend a bad wound from an axe. 
He returned to Fryeburg, bringing with him as his wife, a sister 
of Mr. Fessenden, thus eventually securing to the town its 
first minister as well as first physician. Dr. Emery was the 
first to open a store in the settlement. It stood near Mr. J. 
0. McMillan's barn. A daughter of Dr. Emery married 
Rev. Dr. Dana of Newburyport. 

The first school was kept in the house of Lieut. Swan, two 



24 

or three years after his coming, by Mr. William Frost. Birch 
bark was used for writing books. Of the pupils' proficiency 
we cannot judge, but it is more than probable that they 
shamed some of their descendants, enjoying far greater priv- 
ileges. 

From the same house was carried to her burial the first 
person who died in the settlement, Naamah, a daughter of 
fifteen years. It was in April, 1770, and the corpse was hauled 
over the fences on a hand-sled. 

The settlement is fairly commenced. It is in the full tide 
of its early prosperity. The dark and bloody ground of Love- 
well's fight, " Pequawket," which at every fireside along the 
Merrimac for nearly half a century had been a synonym for 
terror, has become as Dr. Coffin terms it, " a desirable inland 
retreat," containing some three hundred souls. 

Our fathers had been trained in the observance of the Sab- 
bath. A meeting on that day was a necessity to them. Among 
others who aided by casual visits to supply this want, was Rev. 
William Fessenden, a graduate of Harvard in 1768. So 
pleasing was his address that he was unanimously called to be 
their minister. It should be stated that the church had been 
organized Aug. 28, 1775. Mr. Fessenden accepted the invita- 
tion, and was ordained Oct. 11, 1775. This must have been a 
good day in the valley, a high wedding day between minister 
and people, for in those times they took one another "for bet- 
ter or for worse, till death did them part." Cases of divorce 
were known, but were very unusual. By his rare combina- 
tion of excellences, in person, in character and in official la- 
bors, Mr. Fessenden retained the affections of his people to 
the last, dying as the minister of the town, May 5, 1805. The 
memory of Mr. Fessenden is precious. In his public duty as 
minister of the town, in his private relations as kinsman to 
some of his parishioners, and especially as the father of a 
large family, he was a model. Dignified in bearing, generous 
in spirit, hospitable to a fault, fearless and uncompromising in 
maintenance of the right, yet eminently courteous and for- 



25 

bearing, he has left to his descendants that "good name rather 
to be chosen than much riches," He was highly favored in 
having as a ministerial neighbor, his friend and classmate, Dr. 
Porter of Conway. The two brother ministers were possessed 
of contrasted powers, which only served to bind them the 
more closely together. Dr. Porter was the man of ponderous 
logic. Mr. Fessenden was of a livelier fancy. The one ex- 
celled in reasoning, the other in persuasion ; together they 
were like the two pillars of Solomon's temple, Jachin and 
Boaz, the strength and beauty of our forest Zion. Mr. Fes- 
senden was succeeded by Rev. Francis L. Whiting, whose min- 
istry, terminating in 1814, was not a very happy or successful 
one. For several years afterward Rev. Dr. Porter, having 
been dismissed from Conway, supplied the pulpit. And Oct., 
1824, Rev. Carlton Hurd was ordained, whose ministry in all 
its burden of trials and difficulties, and in all its reward of 
intermingled success, is too recent to need lengthened remark. 

We come now to the legal birthday of the Town, the date 
of its incorporation. Through a short minority of fourteen 
years it had attained a growth demanding full municipal priv- 
ileges. It was to have henceforth the management of its own 
internal affairs, and a voice in the public councils of the State- 
It should be noted that the claim for such privileges is 
grounded on the fact of their having a minister, and the need 
of securing his proper support, the building of a meeting 
house, &c. 

Their petition stating these grounds is granted by the Gen- 
eral Court, and the act of Incorporation passed Jan. 11, 1777.* 
Thus had we our birth in the perilous times of the Revolu- 
tion. It shows our fathers' calm confidence that through 
those dark hours they should emerge to a day of brightness, 
peace and joy. True heroism is it to move steadily on amid 
thick-crowding perils, assured that the bark which God has 
launched and freighted with the best hopes of man, He will 
guard and guide in safety over the troubled deep. 

* For Act of Incorporation see Appendix B. 

4 



26 

This was the faith of our fathers. We are recreant to their 
memory, if we make it not our own. 

The first town meeting was called, by warrant, issued by 
Tristram Jordan, Esq., of Pepperelboro, and directed to Lieut. 
Samuel Osgood, notifying the inhabitants to meet at the house 
of Eev. William Fessenden, on Monday, Slst March, 1777. 

At the first meeting, Richard Kimball was chosen Town 
Clerk. 

Dea. Richard Eastman, Isaac Abbott, Nathaniel Merrill, 
Dea. Simon Frye, and Ezra Carter, were chosen Selectmen. 

Richard Kimball, Moses Ames, Stephen Farrington, Ezekiej 
Walker, Benjamin Russell, Committee of Safety. 

Rev. William Fessenden is voted a salary of forty-five 
pounds for his first year, beginning Oct. 11, 1775, also fifty 
pounds for his second year, beginning Oct. 11, 1776. His sal- 
ary to increase five pounds lawful currency, per annum, until 
it should reach seventy pounds, then to remain a stated sal- 
ary at that sum. Salary to be paid in Indian corn at three 
shillings per bushel, and rye at four shillings, for the first six 
years of his ministry, from Oct. 11, 1775. 

A bounty is offered of one pound on each grown wolf. 

The first recorded vote is to have swine go at large. 

At a second town meeting, held the next month, April 17, 
a standard of prices is fixed for all commodities in common 
use. The list opens with 

" A day's labour of a man finding himself, in July or August, 

which is put at 3 s. 9 d. 

" Being found as usual in the above months, 3 s. 

And at other seasons in proportion. 
Some of the home manufacturers of the times are 

brought to light in the price of 
" Good yard wide Tow cloth 2 s. 3 d. 

And meaner quality in proportion. 
*' Sugar, called maple sugar, manufactured in these 

parts, and of the best quality, 8 d. 

" Good tobacco raised in this State, 9 d. 



27 

" Good butter, 9 d. 

" House carpenters and brick layers, per day, 4 s. 

*' Joiners, 3 s. 

" While the poor shoe makers, for making men's and 

women's shoes, 2 s. 7 d. 

and other shoes in proportion. 

*' West India Rum, merchantable, per gallon, 8 s. 10 d. 

And 2 s. 3 d. per quart, and so on in propor- 
tion for lesser quantity. 

" New England Rum, 6 s, 8 d. 

And 1 s. 4 d. per quart. 

The most noticeable article is Salt, per bushel, 15 s. 5 d. 
The first license, for a house of entertainment, is given to 

Mr. Ezekiel Walker, April 15, 1777. 

Not to occupy farther time with details of the town's action, 

let us group together items which will show the spirit of the 

times and the character of the people. 

Our town was born amid the struggles of the Revolution. 
We are naturally anxious to know what part she bore in the 
progress of that long and trying conflict. Under Capt. Joseph 
Frye, eldest son of the Colonel, the men of the town had been 
frequently trained in the practice of arms, and at the very 
outbreak of hostilities, Gol. Frye had been summoned to Cam- 
bridge to give the aid of his military experience in organizing 
the patriotic masses which held the British troops beleagured 
in Boston. 

By the provincial Congress, he was first made a Brigadier, 
then a Major General, and put in command at Falmouth. 

Early in 1776, he left the service on account, as some have 
stated, of ill health. There have been intimations that some 
difference with Washington, caused his resignation. 

Two of his sons were officers in the service, Joseph, as Cap- 
tain, Nathaniel, a Lieutenant. The latter lost his hearing at 
the battle of Monmouth. 

It was my hope to give a list of the men of Fryeburg, who 



28 

served in the war of the Revolution ; but it lias been beyond 
my power. 

As the war wore along, the government was obliged to ap- 
portion to each town its quota of men to enter upon new ser- 
vice or keep good the armies in the field. In answer to re- 
peated calls, Fryeburg raises, successively, five men, two men, 
three men. And when the call comes, Dec, 1780, for seven 
to serve for three years or during the continuance of the war, 
the town, for the first time, asks a partial exemption, but votes 
to raise five instead of seven, and to allow eight Spanish milled 
dollars, per month, to each, exclusive of the pay received from 
the Continental Congress. 

But their public spirit was to be brought to a nearer and 
severer test. In August, 1781, the Indians from St. Francis 
made a descent upon Bethel, (then called Sudbury-Canada,) 
murdered three men, and plundering several families, started 
to return with three men as prisoners to assist in carrying the 
booty. 

In the panic of the inhabitants, they sent to Fryeburg for 
assistance. The word came about noon and was spread at 
once on both sides of the river, with the call on every man to 
come at once with whatever arm§ he had, to the house of Mr. 
Nathaniel Walker. Before sunset the whole settlement was 
gathered there, and from the whole number twenty-three were 
selected, and hastily equipped for immediate service. Under 
the lead of Lieut. Stephen Farrington, who headed the little 
column on horseback, they plunged at once into the forest ; 
just as night closed in around them forded the Saco, and as 
the sun was rising over Bethel Hill, came in sight of the set- 
tlement. Stopping but a few moments for refreshments, they 
took the Indian trail, and with Sebatis as guide, followed it 
for miles up the Androscoggin. One of the captives here met 
them and endeavored to persuade them to return, represent- 
ing that the Indians would kill the other prisoners on the first 
intimation that they were pursued. But they would not yield 
the point so easily. Pushing on they came at length to[,a 
piece of spruce bark pegged upon a hemlock, on wliicli^one of 



29 

the prisoners had written a most urgent request that the party 
might not bo followed, as it would be sure death to the cap- 
tives. Lieut. Farringtou was still strenuous to push on and 
punish the red skins, but yielded at length to the men, whose 
unanimous voice was to return. They came back, buried one 
of the murdered men who had not before been found, stayed 
over night, and leaving a guard, the next day returned to 
Fryeburg. 

For promptness and expedition, this night march into the 
forest will compare favorably with any thing done by com- 
munities in the Mother State at the Lexington alarm ; while 
there are circumstances which make it still more worthy of 
admiration. In the call to repel the British, the whole coun- 
try sprung to arms. From every quarter thronged the minute 
men, sure of each other's countenance and support, and fol- 
lowing their enemy in the broad day light. Here a little band, 
raised at an hour's notice, grope their way in the darkness, 
through a dense forest, directly away from all hope of assist- 
ance, and after a hard night's march, follow the trail of a 
hidden, wily foe that had marked his track with devastation 
and blood, and give up the pursuit only when convinced that 
it will be an injury rather than a benefit to those whom they 
would succor. 

A small company of soldiers, mostly from this town, was 
stationed at Bethel during the remainder of the season, and 
also the next year. 

Our townsmen, in 1777, on the retreat of the American 
forces from Canada, had built three stockade forts for their 
defence. One stood near the bridge at Mr. Weston's, one near 
Mr. Charles Walker's, and one near Mr. S. L. Chandler's, the 
late Joseph Colby place. It is not probable that they expected 
to withstand the whole British army under Burgoyne, but they 
would be prepared for just such predatory attacks as that on 
Bethel.* 

The patriotism of the town was put to a still severer test in 
the progress of the war, that of heavy taxation. Volunteer- 



* See Appendix C. 



30 

iug for military service may be the natural outworking of a 
restless spirit. Love of adventure, joined with sympathy for 
suffering ones, and flashing indignation against the aggressors, 
may prompt to just such a noble midnight expedition as that 
to the Androscoggin in ^81. But there is no romance in pay- 
ing taxes. And when the wolf of gaunt poverty stands at 
the door to enter with the tax gatherer, no wonder there is 
dread at his coming. 

The instructions given Dec, '80, to Dea. Simon Frye, the 
first Representative of the town, first make solemn declara- 
tion of their fidelity as citizens, and then equally earnest 
protestations of their poverty as tax payers. But the good 
Deacon was unable to make the General Court see it. So the 
next year he is made the bearer of a formidable Remonstrance. 

Its statements were so clear and its positions so irrefutable 
that it should certainly have gained the point. I have not 
been able to verify the fact. 

A noble instance, (and not a solitary one we are assured,) of 
disinterested patriotism is given at this trying juncture by 
our minister. Tliough a committee of the town report, Oct. 
23, 1780, that the balance due him is £4,360, 2 s. 9 d. 3 gr.; 
or making allowance for depreciation, over ,£100, hard money, 
say 1500, and in the corn part of the salary, a balance of 
406 1-8 bushels, say |200 more, yet we find him a year later 
relinquishing £15, of what was his due, "to assist the town 
in carry hig on this present unhappy war." The town voted 
their thanks for his generosity. 

The instructions of the town to its early Representatives 
for some years immediately succeeding the Revolution, are 
papers of great interest. 

It has been said that the principles and almost the language 
of our immortal Declaration of Independence, can be found 
entered upon the Records of many of the towns in the Old 
Bay State, for years before its adoption by the Continental 
Congress in '76. 

We cannot claim that honor, not being born, unfortunately, 
till the next year. But what we should have said may be 



gained from Resolutions respecting the appreliended return of 
refugee Loyalists, passed June 2, ^85. Most decidedly do they 
protest against " the admission of such persons as have taken 
refuge under the British King, during the late struggles in 
the defence of our just rights and liberties, and thereby been 
instrumental of protracting the late barbarous and cruel war 
against their own country, and as far as in their power been 
the means of the expense of much blood and treasure of their 
late fellow citizens." " All persons in that predicament and 
that have been declared traitors to their country, ought never 
to be suffered to return and dwell in it again, but be entirely 
excluded therefrom." Right ground in dealing with the 
traitors of the Revolution. Will it not apply to all traitors 
since ? 

The instructions of the town to its Representatives are not 
always uniform. Thus in '86, through Paul Langdon's rather 
graceful pen, Mr. Moses Ames, Representative for tliat year, 
is directed to favor free trade, as one means of relieving the 
country from its present embarrassments. 

The next year. Gen. Frye, in an elaborate and able paper, 
claims the necessity of a proper system of imposts and excise ; 
or rather assuming this as the established policy of the coun- 
try, goes on in a full exposition of his views financially, intro- 
ducing a scheme which,, as far as I understand the subject, 
shadows forth almost the identical system which our great 
financier. Secretary Chase, has so successfully adopted. 

The distresses of the times, (the date of Shay's rebellion,) 
naturally exhibit themselves in the action of the town at this 
period. 

The question also of separation from Massachusetts, was 
much discussed. The town, March 6, 1786, voted unani- 
mously in favor of separation, and sent to the Convention 
held at Portland the next Sept., upon the subject, five out of 
the thirty-one delegates assembled.* 

*The following were the members of the Convention from Fryeburg: 
Joseph Frye, Paul Langdon, Daniel Fessenden, Isaac Walker, Nathaniel 
Merrill. 



32 

A matter of great interest is the estimate the town placed 
upon the Constitution, when first submitted in '88. They 
express confidence in the integrity and abilities of their Dele- 
gate to the Convention, Mr. Ames, admit the value of his 
opportunities for hearing the arguments on both sides, and of 
course making up a proper judgment. " But," they proceed, 
*' the duty they owe themselves and posterity constrains them 
to express their disapprobation of some parts of the Constitu- 
tion." They object to the powers and mode of appointment 
and length of term of the Senate, and that the Legislative 
power of Congress will supersede and in its consequences en- 
tirely vacate the Constitutions of the respective States. "And 
it appears highly absurd to propose an oath or affirmation to 
the officers of Government, of whom no religious test is 
required." These are their most material objections. They, 
therefore, conclude, as follows : " We would not wish that it 
should be entirely rejected, as we esteem it, with proper 
amendments, to be well calculated to promote the welfare of 
the Union." 

Who will say that this is not a sound view of that great 
instrument, the view of sober common sense, equally 
removed from a blind, unquestioning adoration, and from 
captious denunciation. We must remember that the Consti- 
tution had gathered nothing of that sanctity with which it 
is justly enshrined to us. They could not anticipate the 
unnumbered blessings which would flow from its adoption. 

The Revolutionary war was scarcely closed and its heavy 
burdens were by no means disposed of, when the town in '84 
voted to build four school houses, 18 feet square and 7 feet 
stud, in the different parts of the town. Three of these would 
probably be built near where the forts of the Revolution stood, 
viz : at Seven Lots, near Charles Walker's, and the Jos. Colby 
farm, and the fourth near Rev. Mr. Fessenden's. What these 
humble edifices accomplished, we can judge only by the intel- 
ligence of the generation trained in part through the priv- 
ileges they afforded. 



83 

In '87 they set about the more formidable work of raising 
their first house of wor^ship, i. e. the town voted to build a 
meeting house. Messrs. William Wiley, Nathaniel Merrill, 
Stephen Farrington, Simon Frye, and Samuel Charles, were 
made a committee for drafting a plan and estimating the ex- 
pense. The steps taken to secure its completion need not be 
detailed. 

For many years worship was held in this first meeting house 
of the town, standing on the Gamage place, near Bear Pond. 
It had no great pretension either in size or architecture. Its 
dimensions were twenty-five by fifty feet, with three windows 
of nine lights on each side, one at the end. There were no 
pews and no gallery ; the men sat on one side, the women on 
the other; and odd enough it seemed, when with the introduc- 
tion of pews, the sexes sat together. Previously, at the giving 
out of the Hymn, Mr. Joshua Gamage rose near the desk, 
and immediately from right and left filed the sons and daugh- 
ters of Asaph, skilled in. song, and formed in soli4 phalanx 
near their leader. Mr. Gamage was famous as a singer, and 
trained a host of young Pequawketers to accompany him ; for 
our grand-mothers were a tuneful race, and some of our 
grand-fathers learned to keep them company, and their united 
voices not only filled the little temple by the Pond, but rang 
out upon the forests around, like the sound of many waters. 

However lacking in harmony Fryeburg has been in some 
matters, her singing has always been of a high order. The 
Farrington family has never gained the notoriety of the 
Hutchinsons, but it is from no lack of ability. 

About the year 1790, Baptist views were first preached in 
town. Elder Zebadee Richardson came with his family from 
Sanford, and established a church of that denomination. Mr, 
Ridiardson lived first near Isaac Charles', at the turn of thp 
river, and afterward on a lot between Nathaniel Charles' and 
Kimball Pond. He preached for many years, alternately with 
Mr. Fessenden, at the Centre, Mr. Fessenden giving half of 
his time to the Corner, and Mr. Richardson, probably, his 
alternate Sabbaths to the North part of the town. 



34 

Tlie two ministers lived in mutual respect and good will, 
but symptoms of contention sometimes displayed themselves 
among their people. 

How easy to forget that one of the glories of our free insti- 
tutions is the right of private judgment in matters of faith, 
the privilege of maintaining that worship which conscience 
dictates. It will be the perfection of our Christianity, when 
differences of opinion will be regarded with the charity which 
" seeketh not her own," and " thinketh no evil." And yet we 
yield to none in the respect and veneration due to those who 
" contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," 
— only let it be tliat they contend lawfully, — and for the faith, 
not for supremacy. Rev. Mr. Richardson died suddenly at 
Sanford. Many of his best members were advanced in years. 
No effective maintenance of his views was sustained, and in 
process of time the church became extinct. 

That some of its members, and many more of the children 
of deceased members, and their neighbors generally in the 
north part of the town, became interested in and adopted 
Universalist views, and after occupying, at intervals, for years 
the Center Meeting House, secured for themselves the neat 
house of worship near Mud City, are facts too recent to 
require more than this brief notice. 

The introduction of Methodist views has been so compara- 
tively recent, as also to require no very extended notice. The 
bitter controversies amid which the sect had its birth among 
us, have happily been hushed, and for years its ministers have 
been welcomed as worthy coadjutors with those of the older 
faith, in every good work. 

Another religious society. Free Will Baptist, has at times 
flourished and at times declined, in the east part of the town, 
•k A portion of our territory, cut off from us by the Saco and 
the ponds and low impassible meadows adjacent, remained 
unsettled till about the year 1806. It was some twelve years 
later that families from Cornish, Limerick, &c., came and 
made themselves choice farms, by subduing the ridge which 
separates Elkins' brook from the Saco. Here, shut in by 



35 

Pleasant Mountain on the east ; by the river with its fringe of 
impassible meadows on the west ; and Lower Kezer Pond on 
the north ; they lived a neighborhood very much by themselves, 
till the building of the great road to Bridgton, in '34. 

A beautiful portion of the town, the industry of its families, 
the Pikes and Hapgoods, Chadburns, Warrens and Harndens, 
has developed in it some of our most productive farms. 

We come now to an item of our history which every son of 
Fryeburg may contemplate with just pride, the founding of 
our Academy. Next to the early provision for public worship, 
no one thing shows the wisdom and public spirit of our fathers 
more manifestly than its establishment. 

Mr. Paul Langdon, a graduate of Harvard, and son of one 
of its Presidents, had been a resident of the town for some 
years, certainly since '86, at which time the instructions to 
the Representative were drawn up by him. He was born to 
be a teacher, and in each of the four humble school houses of 
the town, had doubtless been bringing forward its children to 
a higher grade of studies than is usual in common schools. 

So in 1791, a Grammar School is established, which, Feb. 
9th, 1792, was incorporated as an Academy, and endowed by 
the General Court with a valuable tract of land. The fol- 
lowing were appointed its first Trustees : 

Rev. William Fessenden, Fryeburg, 
" Nathaniel Porter, Conway, 

Henry Y. Brown, Esq., Brownfield, 
David Page, Esq., Conway, 
Moses Ames, Fryeburg, 
James Osgood, " 
James Osgood, Conway, 
Paul Langdon, Brownfield. 
Although five of the nine Trustees were from the towns of 
Brownfield and Conway, they lived, excepting Rev. Dr. Por- 
ter, within a mile of the Academy ; the two Brownfield Trus- 
tees on lots immediately adjoining it.* 

*Tbe line between Fryeburg and Brownfield ran originally across the 



36 

At their first meeting, March 3, they completed their Board 
by electing, as members, Rev. Daniel Little of Kennebunk, 
Rev. Paul Coffin of Buxton, Hon. George Thatcher of Bid- 
deford, and Thomas Parsons, Esq., of Parsonsfield. 

Rev. Mr. Little was made their President. Paul Langdon 
is elected Preceptor, at a salary of <£52, the first year begin- 
ning the previous November, <£60 the second; Jacob Evans 
and Jeremiah Page, Monitors. Tuition is fixed at six shillings 
for the original twenty-five founders ; seven to all others. 

Rev. William Fessenden, Simon Frye, Esq., and Capt. John 
Webster, are made a Committee to revise tlie regulations of 
the original founders. H. Y. Brown, Simon Frye, and Na- 
thaniel Merrill, Esq., a Committee on sale of lands; — and the 
Listitution is thus promptly set upon its work of public benefi- 
cence. It was from the first a school of a high order. Its 
annual exhibitions rivalled the College Commencements of 
that day ; young ladies coming on horseback, a long day's 
journey through the forests, to attend the ball with which 
they invariably closed. 

Oct. 14, 1801, Col. Page, Rev. William Fessenden and 
Judah Dana, Esq., are chosen a Committee to provide a Pre- 
ceptor, and the April following report tliat they have em- 
ployed Daniel Webster. To these gentlemen is doubtless due 
the honor of giving this unknown youth his first start in the 
world. He did things in his after days to make himself known, 
but he never forgot the humble Institution whicli was his first 
stepping stone to public life. 

In September, 1802, Mr. (afterwards Rev.) Amos Jones 
Cook succeeds Mr. Webster as Preceptor. He continued in 
this position till 1833, the period of a whole generation. Mr. 
Cook was a man of most estimable character, of easy, unas- 
suming dignity, of ready sympathies, and unaffected kindness, 
of scholarly tastes, and unswerving integrity. Through his 
popularity as a Teacher, the Grammar School building, near 

slope of Pine Hill, nearly parallel with the street to the bridge, crossing the 
old Academy lot at the corner of Main street, and passing withia a rod or 
two of the grove in which the Ceutenniai gathering was held. 



Pine Hill, soon became entirely inadequate to the demands 
of the Institution, and steps were taken to erect one more 
suitable. 

And now arises one of those very natural controversies as 
to location. The Village and Fessenden Hill are the competi- 
tors, and the strife runs high. The friends of the rival locali- 
ties back up their preferences by subscriptions, to be paid if 
those preferences are gratified. 

The decision is in favor of the Village, although as a com- 
promise, the old site is abandoned, and the new building placed 
a half mile nearer the defeated party. But it is probable that 
the Academy has never regained its place in the affections of 
the people in the lower part of the town. 

The building erected was a model. To our young eyes it 
was a very temple of Ephesus for beauty, and*its comely pro- 
portions attracted the attention of strangers. It was not 
strange that when the present more substantial but far less 
attractive building rose from its ashes, many, like the Jews 
with Zerubbabel, wept for their remembrance of the former 
house. 

The new Academy, as it was called, was dedicated in 1806, 
and for more than twenty-five years was the theater of Mr, 
Cook's labors as a teacher. In one of its rooms he gathered 
a cabinet both of minerals and curiosities, for a time the 
finest in the state. How our young eyes were dazzled by 
the array of precious stones. How wonderingly w^e looked at 
the big Salem witchcraft gun, and thought it a much more 
appropriate weapon for slaying the bloody Paugus, than the 
modest little firelock near it which really did the execution. 

Here was also a complete file of "the Echo,"* which Rus- 
sell waked amid those classic hills ; and more than this, the 
veritable letters of Jefferson and Adams to Preceptor Cook, 
the former enclosing one from "Washington, written on the 
adoption of the Constitution, and accompanying a copy of the 
immortal document to Jefferson at Paris. Nor must " The 

* Russell's Echo, or the North Star, is the title of a paper published at 
Fryeburg during the years 1798-9. 



Student's Companion " * be overlooked, an admirable compi- 
lation, Mr. Cook's pet cliild, as good perhaps as any Studejifs 
companion could be, save the kind that romped with him out 
of school hours, and made Pine Hill and Jockey Cap vocal 
with the songs and shouts of buoyant unhackneyed youth, to 
sober down in after years into a companion, for weal or woe, 
heightening the joys and sharing the sorrows of life. That 
kind of a companion beats Mr. Cook's altogether, and Frye- 
burg Academy used to be half filled with them ! 

Since Mr. Cook's resignation of the Preceptorship in 1833, 
a full half score have followed him in that office, their united 
terms only equalling his. With varied success, but all with 
honest purpose, have they labored to keep this our Pierian 
Spring a fountain of healthful influences to this community, 
of inspiration to its youth. 

One of these, f after twenty years of absence, is with us to- 
day, not able to look upon the scenes of rural beauty and 
mountain grandeur which he so much loved, but with a heart 
swelling with happy remembrances, as he is assured of our 
grateful recognition of his services, and of our hearty sym- 
pathy in his bereavement. 

But there must be limits, even to historical reminiscences. 
A mid-summer day would not suffice to speak of all that might 
well claim our notice. 

How Fryeburg flourished at the end of her first half cen- 
tury, and for some ten years later ; how she had become th^ 
mountain metropolis, and set the fashions, and did the trading 
for the whole country round ; how students flocked, not only 
to her Academy, but to sit at the feet of Dana and Bradley, 
Lincoln, Chase, and Barrows, her Gamaliels of the law ; 
or to follow Dr. Ramsay in his erratic, but powerful delinea- 

*Mr. Cook published a volume of choice selections in prose and verse 
under this title, long used in the Academy as a reading and parsing book. 

t Amos Richardson, Esq., Principal, since leaving Fryeburg, of a justly 
popular Female Seminary, in Freehold, N. J., and for some half dozen years 
past by a sad accident rendered totally blind. During his Preceptorship the 
Academy enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, and celebrated its semi-cen- 
tennial anniversary, the oration by Rev. J. P. Fesseuden, son of our first 
minister. 



39 

tions of human anatomy ; how the one-horse mail, Mr. Irish, 
carrier, brought in, twice a week, the news from the great 
world, and passed it along, once a week, through the moun- 
tains to Coos, Fryeburg being thus the centre of staging, till 
Conway stole it from her, while she was napping ; how the 
musters were the annual Saturnalia of fun and frolic, as well 
as of arms, till Brownficld took them away with tl: e big guns ; 
how the ministerial fund became a bone of contention till it 
was broken up and each had his share ; how the Academy 
was fast going the same way, and was saved, so as by fire ; 
how the wonderful revival of '31, changed the whole life and 
current of thought in households and in neighborhoods, and 
gave religion a pre-eminence where it had been neglected or 
contemned ; the bridges we persisted in building, though the 
river was as obstinately bent on carrying them away, till 
the genius of Paddelford triumphed, and like another Rarey 
tames and saddles the Saco's chafing current ; the mills we 
have built, and those Avhich should have been, but are not 
built ; the roads which have ever been a matter of just pride 
to the town ;• the freshets which carry away farms from the 
Seven Lots, to build them again in Bog Pond ; the cattle 
shows which very well supply the i)lace of military musters, 
except that in these times we need both ; the aged men and 
venerable women, who for fourscore years, and fourscore and 
ten, and in several instances, for about a century, have borne 
the burdens of life's journey, and gone to the grave honored 
and revered by the whole community ; — all these things, and 
more, arc they not written, or to he written^ in the history of 
Fryeburg, whose advent is somewhere in the " good time 
coming ?" 

Were we to divide the century into three periods of nearly 
equal length, that from 1790 to 1825 would include by far 
the most interesting portion of Fryeburg's history. This 
period opens with the founding of the Academy, and closes 
with the centennial celebration of Lovewell's fight, one of 
Fryeburg's greatest days. The town had acquired an early 



40 

maturity and influence, retained it for one generation, and 
since has been gradually receding in its relative importance. 
There was groat energy and animation in all its business 
interests. It was the acknowledged center of trade for all the 
region, the seat of law and of learning, of fashion and poli- 
tics, for the whole upper Saco valley. 

In 1798-9, but two papers were published in Maine, one in 
Portland, the other in Fryeburg. 

During this period the canal was cut, being commenced 
Nov., 1816, completed in '19, which added immeasurably to 
the agricultural resources of the town, injuring, undoubtedly, 
some tracts, by deepening the river bed, but bringing under 
cultivation ten times as much, before too low and wet for 
occupancy. 

The men of Fryeburg were, during this period, far above 
the average, in ability and intelligence. The pulpit was filled 
successively by Messrs. Fessenden and Whiting, Drs. Porter 
and Hurd, three of them far more than ordinary men. In 
the Academy were Langdon, Webster and Cook. In the law 
were McGaw, Dana, Bradley, Chase, Lincoln, and Barrows. 
While as physicians, Ramsey, Benton, Griswold, were emi- 
nent in their profession, — Drs. Barr^jws and Towle were on 
the threshold of their extensive practice. 

The first settlers of the town were drawing near to the verge 
of life, but were most of them active to the last. Gen. Frye 
died in '94. His nephew, Judge Simon Frye, in 1822. They 
went to the grave full of years and of honors, and left pre- 
cious memories of their virtues, both public and private. Capt. 
H. Y. Brown, first proprietor of Brownfield, and after remov- 
ing from the intervale, (as mentioned, page 23,) erecting a 
mansion at the head of Main St., where his great-grandson, 
Joshua B. Osgood, now lives, a man of uncommon energy and 
commanding ability, died in '96. Col. Joshua B. Osgood of 
Haverhill, Mass., who married his only daughter, and who 
combined the energy of the old forester with scholarly 
attainments, as a graduate of Harvard, died at the early age 
of 38 years, in '91. He was greatly interested in the found- 



41 

iiig of the Academy, though he lived not to rejoice in its 
usefuhiess. 

Among the remarkable men of the town, during this period, 
was Dr. Alexander Ramsay. Born in Edinburg and enjoying 
all the advantages of a medical education in that far-famed 
city, he brought to this country, and to this retired community, 
a wealth of anatomical knowledge, which might have adorned 
the highest circles in the profession. Most thoroughly devoted 
as he ever professed himself to the fair sex, he was married 
only to anatomy, and with singular disinterestedness, would 
have all men share in his enthusiastic attachment. His lec- 
tures drew around him large numbers of medical students, 
who profited by his vivid demonstrations and not always mer- 
ciful dissections. He left a rich cabinet of preparations which 
it is presumed surpassed that of any medical school save that 
at Philadelphia. 

Capt. Vere Royce deserves a prominent place in our local 
picture gallery. A descendant of the Irish nobility, his educa- 
tion and address were those of a gentleman of the old regime. 
In command of a company at Braddock's defeat, he held his 
men in the midst of the murderous ambuscade, till accosted 
by Washington. " Why don't you retreat, Capt. Royce," " I 
have had no orders to retreat. Steady men, make ready ! 
take aim ! Fire ! " " But this will never do, Capt., I order 
you to retreat," said Washington. " Attention company ! 
about face, march!" and so they marched off the field. Capt. 
Royce was a great mathematician, pursued the study through 
life, and left sheets of original dissertations on his favorite 
science, which should not have been lost to the world. He 
was eminent as a Surveyor, as the lines of the many divisions 
and sub-divisions of the town attest. 

Capt. Nathaniel Hutchins was early in the Revolutionary 
war and served under Arnold at Quebec. When taken 
prisoner and his sword demanded by the British, he snapped 
it across his knee and threw the fragments to a distance, 
declaring it should never be taken from him. He was an 
athletic, determined man, and liis captors did aot choose to 
6 



42 

resent this spirited defiance. His son, Henry Dearborn, 
inherited much of his strength, both in person and character. 

Col. John Webster came, a yonng man from Concord, among 
the first settlers, and took a lot still occupied by his descend- 
ants, in that part of the town cut off by New Hampshire. He 
was a Lieutenant of the company commanded by Capt. James 
Osgood, which, early in the Spring of '76, marched to the 
succor of Montgomery's shattered army retreating from 
Canada. He was made a prisoner at the Cedars, and snifered 
greatly in that disastrous campaign. He was a man of much 
firmness and decision, was one of the founders of the Acad- 
emy, and was chosen to fill the first vacancy in the original 
Board of Trustees, — that occasioned by the death of Capt. H. 
Y. Brown. 

Lieut. Stephen Farrington has been already before us as 
leader of the Androscoggin relief party. If the promptness 
and resolution there manifested was a fair sample of his ordi- 
nary character, we wonder not at the influence he exerted 
among his townsmen. His kinsman, Daniel, one of Roger's 
rangers, and afterward a mighty hunter in the valley, was a 
man of great strength and physical endurance, as well as of 
moral worth. It is said of him that he read his Bible till it 
was completely worn out. 

The Walkers were many of them marked men. Lieut. 
John was an old forest ranger, was a soldier at Fort William 
Henry, and afterward at the taking of Quebec. He had pro- 
digious muscular strength, broad, heavy shoulders, and a fist 
like a sledge hammer. He was of mild temper, but like 
Daniel Farrington, was unrivalled as a boxer and wrestler. 
They each of them threshed, in their respective companies and 
regiments, whatever bullies or professed pugilists came in 
their way. 

But the Nimrod of the whole region, a hunter to whom the 
valley and its adjacent mountains had been familiar before its 
settlement, was Abraham Bradley. Again and again had he 
visited the region, and carried back its rich spoils of furs to 
his home iu Concord. He transmitted to his descendants a 



43 

due share of the massive frame and muscular strength, which 
qualified him to grapple with the denizens of the forest. This 
race of hunters, although diminished in numbers, can never 
be considered extinct while such a veteran as our worthy 
townsman, Mr. John Barker, survives. 

Time fails us to speak, at any length, of many others 
equally worthy of mention ; of Richard Kimball, the first Town 
Clerk ; of Deacon Eastman, whose ready Avit must be gratified 
even when his revered minister* was its mark ; of Deacons 
Charles and Carter, as noted for probity and sobriety, as their 
brother Deacon was for probity and pleasantry ; of Isaac 
Abbott, who passing away but a few months since, would have 
completed his hundredth year, had he lived to see this glad 
day. How his dark eye used to sparkle and how his tall form 
straightened up to the last, at mention of revolutionary scenes 
through which he passed, especially his being the first in his 
regiment, selected by Baron Steuben, as one of Washington's 
Light Infantry corps. 

Levi Dresser, his comrade in the war, lived to almost the 
same age, and died only a few years since among his kindred 
at Waterford. 

Besides the physicians mentioned page 40, two others were 
honored and useful, and left large and worthy families, Drs, 
Josiah Chase and Moses Chandler. The latter married a 
daugliter of Preceptor Langdon. 

The families of Day, and by a singular coincidence or con- 
trast, those of Knight, should not be omitted. They must 
have lived in harmony, for all the seeming opposition in 
name ; as we find on the town books the name of Day Knight^ 
born 1795. 

During the period under consideration occurred the war of 
1812, with its attendant party bitterness. Prominent among 

* He kept a ferry across the Saco. Rev. Mr. Fessenden, crossing one day, 
asked the fare, " Oh, nothing, nothing," said the Deacon. " I never take 
anything from people supported by the town." It is somewhat singular, 
that with seventeen children, Dea. Eastman has not left his name in town. 
So of Nathaniel Merrill, with fourteen. Their descendants are numerous, in 
both Conway and Brownfield. 



44 

those who sustained the flag of our country at that trying 
period, were Gen. John McMillan, Major Philip Eastman, the 
chief founder of our, at one time, famous Artillery company ; 
his brother, John Langdon Eastman, so recently deceased. 
Dea. Benjamin Woodman* and others. Of these as of the 
brothers, Robert and Samuel A. Bradley, Philip and Robert 
Page, Samuel and Joseph P. Fessenden, Judge Dana, Major 
James Osgood, Arthur Shirley, &c., &c., sons or citizens of 
Fryeburg, we might well make sketches, did time permit. 

In review, we may be allowed briefly to consider the char- 
acter of our town, in general, — a subject more properly as- 
signed, perhaps, to one who would bring to the work a less 
biased judgment, — for though the speaker has gone out from 
you, he is still of you, and modesty might require that the 
whole matter be left to some other hand. 

But no real or affected modesty shall withold the tribute 
due the fathers of our town, and equally due our mothers.- 
They were more than ordinary men and women, else had 
they never braved the dangers and hardships of such a wilder- 
ness life, at a point so remote from the sympathy and assistance 
of friends. 

They were possessed of great physical strength. They had 
need of it. They prized it. They cultivated it and honored 
its possession. In the " first of times," their hunting excursions, 
and their lumbering and river driving operations in after 
years, required hardihood, pluck and endurance. And in 
these qualities they were never found wanting. Owing to this 
full development of their powers, joined doubtless to their 
simplicity of diet, they, many of them, attained to a great age. 
Quite a long list could be made of those exceeding eighty 
years. A number reached ninety and upwards. 

* A word more is due this good man and those who with him planted a 
Fryeburg colony on the Passadumkeag river, some forty miles above Bangor. 
It was with many misgivings that they took large and dependent families into 
such a wilderness. Dr. Porter is said to have spoken with his full, resonant 
voice this passage by way of encouragement — " Dea. Woodman '' — " Trust in 
the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be 
fed." The beautiful farms which their children enjoy in the town of Burling- 
ton, show how well the promise was fulfilled. 



46 

But they did not make physical strength every thing. They 
placed a high regard upon ready wit, — their conversation very 
often ran into the sharp repartee, and he was the best fellow 
who could parry a home thrust most dexterously, and return 
it most effectively. They loved debate, and Fryeburg town 
meeting has often been the arena of sharp, close-driven dis- 
cussion. The arm's length wrestling, and the close "back hugs" 
outside, found their counter j art in the hand to hand grapple 
of words and wits within, iience a high place has been 
awarded to declamations in the Academy, and even in many 
of our public schools. (To speak to the acceptance of Judge 
Dana, was the summit of youthful ambition in Dist. No. One.) 

They were a reading people. The old Social Library early 
disseminated and cherished a taste for choice intellectual 
entertainment. The number and variety of newspapers read 
by the people of Fryeburg, exceeds by far the average in 
towns of its size. They were eminently a social people. Cut 
off from the world without, they prized the society of each 
other, and on every practicable occasion enjoyed it. " Raisings" 
and house haulings in summer, the huskings of the autumn 
evenings, and above all the "sugaring off" in spring, were made 
seasons of sometimes roystering enjoyment. And, indeed, 
every Saturday brought its crowd to the village, ready, not 
for business alone, but for any sport, sly trick or practical 
joke, that men's wits, sharpened by a little of the ardent, 
could invent. And the rough visage of a Pequawket winter 
was softened by the frequent interchange of civilities and 
hospitalities, — sometimes carried to what we might consider 
an extreme. 

Their isolated situation led to another not very desirable 
result, that of frequent intermarriages. Many families were 
of kindred blood before coming to the valley. James and 
Hannah (Hazen,) Osgood of Concord, N. H., sent seven of 
their children to Pequawket. Three of these married Web- 
sters, and the intertwinings of their children form some 
curious relationships. Joined with the Evanses and Stickneys, 
the families are something like the ganglions of Anatomy, — 



46 

interlaced to a remarkable degree. The same is true, to a 
certain extent, of the Fryes, Gordons and Wileys, of the 
lower part of the town ; while the intermarriages of the 
Walkers, Stevenses, Charles, &c., make a tangled thicket, 
througii which I have never been able to find a way. 

Some would consider us of Fryeburg, a contentious people. 
In this we are like all Yankee communities, only a little more 
so. That this has been our character, is partly our fault, 
partly our misfortune, and partly to our praise. It is the fault 
of all self-willed, imperfect individuals, of all limited commu- 
nities, where rival interests, rival parties, and rival families, 
strive for an undue pre-eminence. 

But want of unity is, in an important sense, more our mis- 
fortune than our fault. Our town has no natural centre, a 
large village at the heart, to which the whole town resorts, 
and whose advancement is the common interest and common 
pride of all. 

The village situated at one side of the town, and originally 
partly in another town, has become still more isolated by 
prejudices against it, inevitable from an unfortunate location. 
Tlie pecuniary and business interests of the town suffer as 
well as its social. East Fryeburg gives all her trade to Bridg- 
ton. North Fryeburg, the Toll Bridge neighborhood, and 
even the Centre, have done much to build up our smart 
daughter, Lovel. It is not strange that a town thus broken 
into parts, should be lacking in unity. And then these con- 
tentions, inseparable from the enjoyment of free institutions, 
have another side which must not be overlooked. They are 
the evidence of life in the public mind. The millions of China 
have, till recently, been a remarkably quiet people, but it was 
the stupor of indifference, the dead calm of stagnant imbe- 
cility. " Better one hour of Europe, then a century of 
Cathay." Yes, let mind clash with mind, let convictions be 
held firmly and urged zealously. The friction, the rough 
grapple, is better than inertness, better than sleepy stagnation. 

Fryeburg, in its business affairs, has not been as wide 
awake as some of its neighbors, not enough for her own inter- 



47 

ests. But mind has l)een at work here. Her rank among 
Ithe Post Offices of the State is far above what her population 
Would give her. 

For years her Meteorological reports formed part of the 
Smithsonian Institutes' contributions to science. In the list 
of subscribers to the Art Journal, she has a place among some 
of the leading cities of the State. 

Fryeburg has been in the main a patriotic town. To the 
Revolution she sent some of her choicest citizens, one of them 
the father of the town, to hold a high command in defence 
of the insulted, ravaged seaboard. With alacrity our young- 
men plunged into the forest to rescue their suffering neigh- 
bors from the tomahawk of the savage. 

In the war of 1812, though honest differences of opinion 
caused some withholding, our company of artillery took its 
guns, at short notice, to the defence of Portland. A number 
of our citizens went into the campaign upon the Lakes. 

And in this terrible struggle of our day, when desperate 
rebellion has clutched at the throat of our government, and 
threatens to destroy all our blessed institutions, the blood of 
the sons of Fryeburg has flowed freely in their defence. Sev- 
eral will to their dying day bear marks of honorable wounds 
received at Fredericksburg and on the glorious field of Gettys- 
burg ; whille others have fallen, giving life as a willing sacrifice 
on the altar of their country. All honor to their memories 
to-day ! * They are our latest, but by no means our last offer- 
ing upon the altar of patriotism. Let it be one purpose of 
our assembling, — one of the most precious results of these 
re-unions of the living, one of the hallowed influences of our 
communion with the departed, to deepen in every breast new 
devotion to our country. 

And let us comprehend the magnitude of the struggle. It 
is no casual, transient conflict. It did not happen to us 
because Fort Sumter was bombarded. It is not to be settled 
by the re-occupying of that Fortress. Deep below all such 
externals is the true point at issue, simply this — Is a man a 

* See Appendix D. 



48 

man, wherever and however pUiced upon this earth, the com- 
mon heritage given of God to his children ? The Declaration 
of Independence opens with the assertion of this truth. 
Reason and revelation alike proclaim it. The accidents of 
birth, training, fortune, position cannot affect that which goes 
below them all, the underlying foundation of our common 
humanity. A true democracy can rest upon nothing short of 
this primal truth. This is the primitive granite, defying the 
ages. Anything short of this is like the shifting sands of the 
Lybian desert. That which is built upon it must fall. And 
not only in the foundation, but through every part of the 
superstructure must this great first principle be recognized. 
The rights of man, of all men jealously guarded, — this must 
be the pervading spirit of a republic. A true republic is the 
Sermon on the Mount, carried into civil affairs. It is the 
golden rule adopted as the a. b. c. of politics. It is man deal- 
ing with his fellow man as his equal, as having rights inalien- 
able as his very being, sacred as his immortal nature. 

And we are henceforth to have such a republic. We are 
being purified as by fire. The wood, hay, stubble, ever out of 
place in our state fabric, are being bnrned ; the rotten system 
of shame and wrong, so gross an outrage to every pretension 
of true democracy, is crashing to its fall. It will be swept 
away, and our foundations, and our whole glorious temple 
shall be of the tried stones, — truth and everlasting justice. 

The great victories, for which we have recently kept a day 
of solemn thanksgiving to God, were not all won in the field. 
It was not over Vicksburg, Port Hudson taken, the Mississippi 
opened, and Lee driven beyond the Potomac, that we had rea- 
son chiefly to rejoice. Fortresses of prejudice have yielded. 
Long intrenched and defiant wrongs have been overcome. 
Great truths, long discarded or but half approved, are plant- 
ing their triumphant ensigns on the very citadels of hoary 
abuses. 

The gallant men of the 54th Mass., (colored,) who baptized 
with their blood the ramparts of Fort Wagner, and held them 
until succor should have come to ensure their victory ; have 



49 

they not proved their manhood, their right to citizenship. 
And are they ever again to go down in the scale below that 
standard ? Palsied be the hand that shall attempt their deg- 
radation, accursed the heart that shall meditate the outrage. 
But there need be no fears upon the point. We would not 
cloud the joyousness of such a day as this, by any such 
untimely forebodings. In the progress of this bitter struggle, 
and it may be by its very bitterness, God is settling some 
points in a manner never to be reversed. 

One of these thoroughly established points is this, — Ours is 
to be a land of free men. The principles of the fathers are to 
be embodied and perfected by the work, by the suffering of 
the children. The old flag retrieved from its dishonors, is to 
float from sea to sea, from the lakes to the gulf, all radiant 
with the living light of freedom, — inscribed on every fold, — 
" Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable." 

He who uttered these immortal words drew part of their 
inspiration from the scenery around us. The poetic eye of 
Lincoln often lighted up under its influence, and his soul 
swelled with new pulsations for freedom. * Let it speak to 
us, even more emphatically, for were they not comparatively 
strangers to this scenery, while to us it is a birthright ? These 
eternal heights, emblems of God's justice, — this valley of 
unrivalled sweetness, bearing the impress of the Heavenly 
Father's benignity, — the solemn grandeur of winter among 
these mountains, — the calm serenity with which the summer 
evening dies out among their summits, — all the beauties and 
sublimities of nature in this her chosen seat, should inspire the 
soul with trust in God, and incite to fidelity in duty. All the 
memories of the past ; all the solemnities of the present hour, 
the door way of the closing and the opening century ; all 
the aspirations, the glad hopes and fair presages of the future, 
urge us alike to fidelity in this great struggle. 

The glad occasion which has gathered us passes rapidly by. 
Our kindly greetings will soon change to lingering farewells. 

* See his burniao; denunciations of the slave trade in his Poem of " The 
Village," written here in 1815. 

7 



50 

Having spent the day in this eddy upon life's current, we shall 
be out again upon its ever changeful, hurrying tide. Let it 
not sweep any one of us to blank oblivion. We live by link- 
ing ourselves with the unchangeable. However humbly 
identified with the eternal principles of righteousness and 
freedom, we become immortal. 

Many a nameless grave will be consecrated in a grateful 
country's lasting remembrance. Many a humble one who has 
wrapped the garments of her early widowhood about her, or 
been written childless in the earth, shall be honored as having 
given the jewels of her heart for her country's salvation. 
Thus through many a night of private grief cometh the 
morning of our country's redemption. Its brightness shall 
cheer us, whatever of gloom may hang around our individual 
pathway. " Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh 
in the morning." 

Though hearts brood o'er the Past, our eyes 

With smiling Futures glisten ! 
For lo ! our day bursts up the skies ; 

Lean out your souls and listen ! 
The world rolls Freedom's radiant way, 

And ripens with her sorrow ; 
Keep heart ! who bear the Cross to-day 

Shall wear the Crown to-morrow. 

O youth, flame-earnest, still aspire 

With energies immortal ! 
To many a heaven of Dfsire, 

Our yearning o^jes a portal ! 
And though Age wearies by the way 

And hearts break in the furrow, 
We'll sow the golden grain To-day, — 

The Harvest comes To-morrow. 

Build up heroic lives and all 

Be like a sheathen sabre, 
Ready to flash out at God's call, 

O Chivalry of Labor ! 
Triumph and Toil are twins ; and aye 

Joy suns the cloud of sorrow. 
And 'tis the Martyrdom To-day, 

Brings Victory To-morrow. 



Collation and Afternoon Exercises. 



At the close of the Address, the President of the Day wel 
corned the great assembly to the bountiful collation, which the 
citizens of the town had generously provided for all their 
guests. From twelve to 'fifteen hundred were thus supplied, 
and spent an hour in most genial, social intercourse. 

On re-assembling at the stand, the following letters, among 
others received from absent sons of the town, were read by 
Henry H. Smith, Esq. 

Bangor, August 4, 1863. 

George B. Barrows, Esq. • Dear Sir : Your favor that 
brought me an invitation from the inhabitants of Fryeburg to 
visit them on the 20th inst., and unite with them in celebrating 
the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of that 
town, was received last Saturday evening and affords me 
much delight. 

The halcyon days of my early manhood, (when the joy of 
every hour was as unmingied with sorrow as is allotted to 
man,) were again so vivid that the decrepitude of my approach- 
ing four score and five years were almost forgotten. But one 
night of sleep quieted the feverish imaginations of my per- 
verted brain and assures me that the highest delights of my 
early friendships must soon terminate; and that now, my 
considerations should be turned toward joys unspeakable and 
eternal, which can be obtained only in the spiritual world. 

The exhausted condition of my physical powers forbids me 
to attempt to make the proposed journey to Fryeburg, in 
accordance with the highly valued invitation of its respected 
inhabitants. But as the leading and praiseworthy object of 
your letter, as I understand it, is, to collect materials " for a 



52 

future history of your town " and thereby " to perpetuate the 
memory of the fathers," my personal presence could be of 
very little avail. 

I lament the meagerness of my memory respecting such 
facts as would aid in giving value to the prospective history of 
a town, that merits pre-eminence for successful efforts in pro- 
moting elevated civilization, as well as for furnishing to the 
world an unusual proportion of distinguished men for each of 
the learned professions, and for high, political positions. I 
account for this pre-eminence by the fact that the owners and 
first occupants of the Seven Lots in Fryeburg were men of 
vigorous intellect, great industry and sound morality. These 
characteristics are proved by the attention of their possessors to 
the early founding, and causing to be endowed of the excellent 
literary institution that has been there nurtured and strength- 
ened during more than two-thirds of a century. The perma- 
nent establishment by them of a learned and devout ministry, 
bears like testimony to their characteristics. 

Such favoring circumstances as those mentioned, had drawn 
together a considerable number of virtuous inhabitants to the 
beautiful valley of the Saco river, at and about Pigwacket, 
before the first days of the present century. At this period 
my personal knowledge and intimacy with that people com 
menced. I had scarcely entered upon my habitancy at Frye- 
burg, when the confidence of friendship was imparted to me 
by the frank, guileless and amiable people of the place. Their 
leading occupation was agricultural. But as their market 
(Portland) was limited in its amount of business transactions, 
fifty miles distant from them, and difficult of access, it seemed 
expedient to find a less expensive, or more profitable outlet 
for their surplus products than by transportation to Portland. 
Good pine timber existed in considerable quantities in the 
adjoining townships of Brownfield and Lovell, with some addi- 
tions in other localities. Cutting and hauling this timber into 
Saco river, required the labor of men and teams at that season 
of the year when farming made no demands upon them. 
Support of laborers in this employment furnished a home 



58 

market for surplus provisions, while food for the teams dis- 
posed of surplus hay. A large and profitable market for the 
lumber was found at and near the mouth of the river, whereby 
the hearts of all concerned were gladdened, and their wealth 
promoted. 

The number of mechanics conformed strictly, in number, 
to the absolute wants of the resident inhabitants. 

Mercantile operations were quite limited, only one store 
existed in 1801, at the Seven Lots, the capital of which was 
supplied by Capt. Seth Spring, (a large timber dealer) of Saco, 
who had a young man by the name of McMillan, (afterwards 
Gen. John McMillan,) for his working partner. Its iuisiness 
was intended to furnish supplies almost exclusively to timber 
operators. Luxuries, so far as they were indulged, were pro- 
cured at Portland. The strongest illustration oi' this honor- 
able trait of simplicity and economy by the inhal)itants of 
Fryeburg, is the fact, that no more than one barrel of West 
India brown sugar had been retailed at Fryel)urg previous to 
the year 1802. Maple sugar of home manufacture had here- 
tofore satisfied the requirements of the people. 

Food for families was substantial but simple, and every 
household arrangement was plain but neat. Factious dem- 
agogues did not exist there. Hon. Simon Frye was, at an 
early period, elected to the Senate of the State. His town 
elected him to be their Representative in the Legislature 
through several successive years; but as he continued like- 
wise to hold the office of Senator, the wages of Representatives 
which was then defrayed by the several towns choosing them, 
was saved to Fryeburg. Senator Frye also held the office of 
Judge in the Court of Cominon Pleas. These various and 
honorable employments satisfied the possessor without med- 
dling with municipal aifairs. • 

Lieut, James Osgood, being a man of quick perceptions, 
much experience and shrewdness in managing business affairs, 
became very prominent in planning and prosecuting to their 
end, the lumber o])erations of the people of his town, who in 
general, had great confidence in the correctness of his advice. 



54 

Mr. Osgood accumulated a good pecuniary rustic competency, 
reared and handsomely educated a numerous and respectable 
family of children, of which the late Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. 
D. was one. 

In the beginning of 1802 the late Robert Bradley, Esq., 
removed hither from Concord, N. H., and in company with his 
brother, John Bradley, opened the first store containing a 
general assortment of merchandise in this town. Mr. Bradley's 
vigorous and energetic mind soon awakened capabilities and 
excited a higher spirit of enterprise in the substantial citizens, 
than had theretofore been developed by them. The beneficial 
influences of this excellent man advanced the activities and 
promoted the wealth of the staid inhabitants. 

Fryeburg Academy was first opened for instruction in 1792. 
Tlie services of Mr. Paul Langdon,* a graduate of Harvard 
University, of distinguished scholarship, fine intellectual 
powers and gentlemanly manners, were procured to fulfill the 
duties of Preceptor. Its duties were discharged with ability 
and success until the autumn of 1801. 

The services of Mr. Daniel Webster, (afterward eminent 
and honorable Daniel Webster,) then a recent graduate of 
Dartmouth College, were engaged to supply the place of Mr. 
Langdon ; but the powers of his gigantic mind could be 
restrained within so limited a sphere of action only for the 
short period of three academic terms. 

The intrinsic worth of Mr. Langdon as a school teacher, 
began to be developed and the loss of it deplored, soon after 
his removal from the school. The late Hon. Benjamin Orr 
and Hon. Samuel A. Bradley had been of the number of 
his early pupils, and were caused by him so to study as to 
arouse every intellectual faculty that either of them possessed. 
to exert its highest power. The profoundness, skill and ele 
vated attainments of these gentlemen in their subsequent 
lives, conferred honor upon the institution in which they 
received their elementary education, as well as upon its 
devoted teacher. 

* A Grammar School had been under his charge for a year or two previous. 



55 

In this connection we produce a roll of honor, that has long 
dignified the town of Fryeburg and her nol»le Academy. On 
this roll we find inscribed, in addition to the names already 
mentioned, others distinguished in all of the learned profes-* 
sions, in the halls of Congress and in eminent positions of 
political life. William Barrows, through a brief period, gave 
promise of lofty eminence as a jurist, but the Sovereign of the 
Universe very soon advanced him to higher glory in a better 
world. Hon. Albion K. Parris was clothed, through his whole 
lifetime, with robes of highest honor, in almost every depart- 
ment of office known under our form of government. Among 
jurists of Maine, few men have attained to equal eminence 
with the venerable Gen. Samuel Fessenden, and no one may 
justly claim a higher rank. Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D., was 
cotemporary with Gen. Fessenden for years; and for useful- 
ness in the holy department of the gospel ministry, may well 
be esteemed a pattern man for clergymen now entering upon 
the duties of that holy office. Eminent gentlemen of more 
recent date are better known to you than myself. Surely I 
need not mention the numerous family of Fessenden, Hon. 
Samuel Bradley, the large and honorable family of GoodenoWy 
Hon. Judge Howard, Gov. Dana, &c., &c. 

I had almost forgotten to say that from 1801 to 1805, both 
inclusive, the unmarried portion of the population of Frye- 
burg, with a small sprinkling from Conway, constituted the 
most fraternal, joyous, democratic, fun-loving, but innocent 
associates that I have ever known. Of the number referred 
to was the Hon. Daniel Webster, Preceptor of the Academy, 
J. Farnham, a saddler, a young lawyer who for the present 
shall be nameless, Joshua Durgin, a tanner, with numerous 
other persons of both sexes, of just such congenial temper- 
aments and characteristics. Not unfrequently the spirit would 
move some of these good gentlemen and ladies to have a ball. 
Notice of the intended assembly would be given by some 
individual to another, and by him extended until all hands 
were informed of the good time. In two or three hours Mr. 
Osgood's hall in the third story of his house, was lighted up 



with candles, and the smiling faces soon began to exhibit 
themselves. By the time that shaking of hands, and the 
saying of liow-d'-ye-do had been attended to, (and it did not 
take a long time to do it,) Farrington, the fiddler, who lived 
in the house sii))sequently owned by Dr. Griswold, made his 
appearance. Now came oiT the dance — and a good one, a 
cheerful one, a happy one, and an unceremonious one it 
would be. All was over and past in good season, and with 
just as little ceremony as the party was got up, it was dis- 
solved. Each person returned quietly to his own home. 

Such was Fryeburg at the commencement of the present 
century. 

May its honor, its distinguished usefulness, its prosperity 
and the happiness of its virtuous inhabitants, forever continue 
and increase. 

With a high sense of the kindness and favor done me by 
the good people of Fryeburg, by extending to me an invitation 
to attend the celebration of their centennial settlement of the 
town, 

I am their Friend and Servant, 

JACOB McGAW. 



Worcester, August 15, 1863. 

Rev. Samuel Souther. Dear Sir: Since the receipt of 
your kind note, I have daily intended to seek the pleasure of 
a personal interview with you, but I have now to regret, that 
the ill state of my health, and the exhausting heat of the sea- 
son, will hardly permit me more than to offer you an earnest 
expression of my grateful sense of the honor of the invitation 
which you have been pleased to communicate, and my 
deep regret, that it will not be in my power to participate 
in the enjoyments of the very interesting occasion w^hich it 
announces. 

It would, indeed, be a joy to me, to visit a place where an 
honored and beloved Brother received the first welcome of 
generous hearted Strangers, and made the Friends of his early 



67 

manhood; — where the labors of his professional life met their 
first rewards, and the aspirations of a noble ambition for use- 
fulness and honorable distinction a cheering encouragement. 
It would be with no ordinary emotion, that I should view for 
the first time, the local scenery of magnificent grandeur, 
which he so loved to contemplate, and scan the landscapes of 
romantic and surpassing beauty, which he delighted to de- 
scribe. Nature, in her most attractive features, and the 
People of Fryeburg, in their unobtrusive and abounding vir- 
tues, fixed his affections and his residence in Maine, and he 
freely ga.ve, with no divided purpose, the best thoughts of a 
cultivated mind, and the devoted labors of a patriotic life to 
the ser\dce of the State. And richly, was this full measure 
of duty repaid, in the repeated expressions of public confi- 
dence which he received, and by that last most impressive 
testimonial to his character and memory, so grateful to the 
hearts of his kindred and friends, the appropriate and taste- 
ful monument on the banks of the peaceful Kennebec, which 
now marks the resting place of his mortal remains. 

Nor is the State of Maine without interest to me, in many 
personal relations. Before the separation from Massachusetts, 
I had participated in the legislation which was the common 
obligation of the people of the component parts of the old 
Commonwealth, and, in some humble degree, aided in the 
passage of the act which gave effect to that measure ;-^and 
after the separation, it was my privilege to be an Associate on 
the Commission for the division of the public lands, between 
the States. In the subsequent controversy with great Britain 
concerning the North Eastern Boundary, the rights of prop- 
erty and, of sovereignty, so nobly asserted by the Governor of 
Maine were made of like concern to Massachusetts, and her 
Executive did not hesitate hi strenuous co-operation for their 
vindication and maintenance. And now, in these evil days 
of trial and of great peril to the nation, it is with inexpressi- 
ble satisfaction I cherish the consideration, that a Son, in 
command of a Regiment in the Army of the Potomac, may 
have derived much of the inspiration of patriotism and his 



58 

training for duty, from instruction in the Academic halls of 
Bowdoin. 

All honor to the State of Maine, liberal and enlightened in 
her government, — brave and loyal and patriotic in her people. 
All honor to her returning' soldiers, who, by their heroism, 
have won the meed of true valor ; and to her outgoing hosts 
who will help to purge the land of rebellion, and restore a 
distracted and bleeding country to peace, prosperity and 
union! May the occasion which you are called to celebrate, 
be full of congratulatory remembrances in the history of the 
past, and of solemn resolutions and inflexible purpose, that 
the civil privileges and social blessings, which are the enjoy- 
ment of the present, shall remain unimpaired, to be forever 
the inheritance of the future. 

With sentiments of great respect. 

Your obd't, and obliged servant, 

LEVI LINCOLN. 



The following letter from Hon. N. S. Benton, son of Dr. 
Benton, and for many years in the Treasury Department of 
the State of New York, was received with great interest. 

Albany, Aug. 11, 1863. 

Gentlemen : I have received your kind letter inviting my 
attendance on the 20th instant, at the celebration of " the 
Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of Fryeburg." 

I need not say to you, gentlemen, how gratifying it would 
be to me to embrace this opportunity of visiting, after fifty 
years of permanent absence, a place so long endeared to me 
by kind and generous solicitudes as it was my lot to experience 
at Fryeburg and Fryeburg Academy, while endeavoring to 
master the " Situation," which it was the purpose of my life 
when young, to attain if I could. 

My engagements here will prevent my acceptance of your 
very flattering invitation, and no one, it seems to me, can feel 
more keenly than myself, the disappointment this announce- 
ment gives. 



59 

Having been a member of your Institution under the 
instruction of Webster, Cook and Barrows, may I not justly 
lay claim to be one of the surviving ancients who have mem- 
ories to indulge and aspirations to gratify? Be assured, 
gentlemen, of' my cordial thanks for your kindness, and I 
trust the " festivities of the occasion" will be all that you can 
hope for or wish. 

Most respectfully yours, 

N. S. BENTON. 

Messrs, David B. Sewall, Henry Hyde Smith, Israel B. 
Bradley, Committee, &c. 



The following regular sentiments were then read by Hon. 
George B. Barrows: — 

The early Clergy of Pequawket — They feared God but dis- 
missed all other fear* 

Our Centennial Anniversary — While we recur to pleasing 
recollections and indulge in refreshing remembrances of the 
past, let us also crowd the hour with rational enjoyment of 
the present. 

The Pequawkets — We are very sure that their history and 
historian will both be True. 

Dr. True of Bethel, responded as follows : — 

Mr. President, — It was intimated to me a few minutes ago 
that I must respond to the sentiment just proposed. This 
takes me by surprise, because I had regarded the day as one 
belonging exclusively to the sons and daughters of Fryeburg. 

I have come to attend this celebration all the way from 
Sudbury-Canada, in the " Scoggin " country, to Pig-wacket, 

* Everj' one must have felt how appropriately one of our most gifted and 
honored sons of Fryeburg, Kev. J. P. Fessenden, would have responded to 
this sentiment. But from his fearless, uncompromising ministry of the word, 
he has gone to his reward. 



GO 

near the very path the first settlers passed through Fryeburg 
by spotted trees to what is now Bethel. 

We have always regarded Fryeburg as our elder sister, and 
although we think the younger one the more beautiful now, 
yet the elder still wears a comely and attractive aspect. 

To me Fryeburg was always classic ground. In my early 
boyhood I heard that there was an Academy in Fryeburg long 
before I ever saw one. This rendered it a sacred spot to me. 
While yet quite a young man, I received a box of minerals 
from your Preceptor Cook, which did much to increase my 
own knowledge in the science of mineralogy, while he was 
long before an industrious pioneer in this beautiful science. 
His Student'' s Companion enabled me to hold many a contro- 
versy with the district school-master on English Grammar. 

Sudbury-Canada, was granted to a company of soldiers 
in Sudbury, Mass., in 1768. The first grist mill and dwelling 
house were built in 1774. The first family that wintered 
there was Samuel Ingalls', in 1776. He afterwards removed 
to Fryeburg. Forty-four revolutionary soldiers settled in 
Bethel. 

The relations between Fryeburg and Bethel were much 
more intimate in their early history than at present. Fryeburg 
was the resting place for the pioneers on their way from Mas- 
sachusetts and New Hampshire, and Sudbury-Canada was 
largely indebted to Fryeburg for favors. So far as I can 
learn, the first minister that ever visited Bethel was the Rev. 
Mr. Fessenden of Fryeburg. He assisted also in settling the 
first minister in 1799. The first magistrate in town was from 
Fryeburg, — Benjamin Russell. The first lawyer, William 
Frye, a grandson of Gen. Joseph Frye, was from Fryeburg. 
One of the physicians, now residing in Bethel, was from Frye- 
burg, who in nearly a third of a century has done nothing but 
ride and visit the sick, and, I suppose, will continue to do so 
tdl he dies. The first school-mistress of whom I have any 
account, was Sally, daughter of Rev. William Fessenden of 
Fryeburg. She taught in the summer of 1792. The first 
company of soldiers in town was from Fryeburg, under Capt. 



61 

Stephen Farrington. When the Indians attacked tho town in 
Aug., 1781, John Grover, grand-fatlier of Gen. Cnvier Grovcr, 
went on foot to Fryeburg, and in a few hours twenty-three 
me^i were ready to start for Bethel in pursuit of the Indians. 
The next year a company from Fryeburg was stationed at 
Bethel in garrison, under Stephen Farrington who received the 
commission of Lieutenant. The only level spot in town for 
the company drill, was on a little plank bridge across the 
brook near the grist mill at Bethel Hill. Lieut. Farrington 
was much respected by the early settlers, though I cannot for- 
bear relating an anecdote of him. He sent out two brothers 
by the name of Swan, as a scouting party to watch the 
Indians, but the rich furs in the vicinity were more attractive 
to them than hunting for Indians, so they caught and lined 
their camp with the most valuable furs. Lieut Farrington 
finding it out, threatened to bring them into the garrison, but 
they compromised the matter by promising him one half the 
proceeds. It is worthy of note that this was probably the 
last company ever raised in New England for watching the 
Indians. 

The Indians frequently visited Bethel from Fryeburg. The 
names of Sabattis, Capt. Swarson, Mollocket, and others, were 
well known to the first settlers. Mollocket was the last of the 
Pigwacket tribe, and died in Andover, Me., Aug. 2nd, 1816. 

Among the necessities and expedients to which our early 
settlers were subjected, I might mention one incident. When 
they brought their cows here, they pastured them on the old 
Indian corn fields where the wild onion grew. This affected 
their milk so as to render it unfit for use. To remedy this, the 
hilmbitants would eat a raw onion before using the milk, and 
m this way got rid of the disagreeable taste. 

But I am trespassing on your time, yet I wish to show you 
a token of respect made to Gen. Joseph Frye, the founder of 
your town. It is in the possession of his great-grandson, 
Joseph Frye of Bethel. It is a tankard of solid silver, on 
which is the following inscription together with the family 
coat of arms. 



62 

To JOSEPH FRYE Esq 

Colonel and Commander in Chief of the Forces in the Service of the 

Province of the Massf. Bay, and late Major of the 2nd Battalion 

of General Shirley's Provincial Regiment, 

THIS TANKARD 

From a Juft Scnce of his Care and Conduft of the Troops while 

under his Command at Nova Scotia, and a proper Refentment 

of his Paternal Regard for them Since their Return 

to New England, Is Presented By 

His Moft Humble Servants, 
Bofton, April 20, 1757. The Officers of Sd Battalion. 

I have also a memento of Mollocket. It is a pocket book 
made by her and presented to Capt. Eli Twitchell of Bethel, 
about eighty-five years ago. 

Bethel extends a greeting to her elder sister, fully acknowl- 
edging all the favors received from her in the past, and doubts 
not, that when a railroad shall pass up the Saco valley and 
reach Fryeburg, as sooner or later it will, she will be so 
rejuvenated as to be as attractive as her younger companion. 

The Toasts were then resumed : 

The memory of Fellows, Mclntire, Austin, Walker, Richard- 
son, Stanly, Andrews, Powers, Hobbs and Webster — They 
have experienced how sweet and beautiful it is to die for the 
Fatherland. When the war is over, let us remember them in 
g-ranite* 

Tlie memory of our loved townsman, Capt. John Page, who 
fell at Palo Alto. We believe in good blood, — the mantle of 
the sire rests upon the sons. One fights in the army of the 
Potomac, and the other has won his spurs as one of Fremont's 
body guard, in the brilliant charge at Springfield. He is with 
us to-day. 

*See Appendix E. 



63 

The honored Governor of the old Bay State — A son of 
Maine, a grandson of Fryeburg. We are not ashamed of our 
boys. 

Gov. Andrew being loudly called for, and received with 
enthusiasm, commenced, in response, by touching allusions to 
his mother, and her influence in developing and shaping his 
character, lie returned thanks to the many venerable citi- 
zens who had, during this his first visit to Fryeburg, expressed 
their affection for her during her residence here. 

He extolled the scenery of the valley, — girt about and 
guarded by the everlasting hills, combining loveliness and 
grandeur in no common degree. Passing to consider the 
state of our country, his remarks were interrupted by rain 
which had been threatening among the mountains for near an 
hour. The audience scattered in most picturesque style down 
the slope of Pine Hill, and through the street to the church, 
which, in a few minutes, was filled to its utmost capacity, 
while hundreds could not gain admittance. Here, for an hour 
and a half. Gov. Andrew pressed the great theme of our 
country's position, needs and glorious prospects, showing most 
conclusively, that through the bloody ordeal of battle, God 
was establishing righteousness in the land, overthrowing 
gigantic wrong, and breaking forever the rod of the oppressor. 

Alluding to a disposition on the part of some, to compro- 
mise and yield to the claims of those in rebellion, he said it 
might be done when from out their bloody graves our thou- 
sands of noble sons and brothers fallen in the shock of battle, 
should start again to life. Till then the stern duty of sub- 
duing traitors in arms should be gladly accepted by every 
patriot heart. 

It is greatly to Ije regretted that a verbatim report of the 
Governor's admirable address could not be secured. No ab- 
stract, however full, can do justice to the fervor and eloquence 
of its appeals, or the withering sarcasm, and burning indigna- 
tion of its denunciations. It was instinct with the patriotism 
that has marked the Governor's career as chief magistrate of 



04 

the Bay State, and so justly endeared him to every loyal 
heart. 

The Flag of our Country — Consecrated by a new baptism, 
may its folds ever float over the land of the free and the home 
of the brave. 

The Pilgrim Fathers — They believed in churches, schools 
and men who carry muskets. God forbid that their descend- 
' ants should ever wander from such a confession of faith. 

The valley of tlie Saco : — 

" Shallow and deep by turns and swift and slow 
There we behold the winding Saco flow." 

From Gov. E. Lincoln's " Village." 

Fryeburg-, a small part but still a part of the original Union, 

we do not intend to go out of the partnership this year. 

Our returned sons and daughters — Strangers they may be 
in our houses, they can never be in our hearts. 

Enoch W. Evans, Esq., of Chicago, 111., responded in a most 
eloquent speech. He had brought back from a twenty years' 
absence at the west, a heart still beating warmly with love for 
his native valley. The memories of his childhood, would live 
ever in his mind. He was proud of Maine, and most of all 
he honored her patriotic devotion in this hour of the country's 
peril. Never should he forget the thrill which pervaded a 
vast assembly in the city of his residence, some weeks since, 
at the announcement that Maine's quota, under the call of the 
President, was full. Most emphatically would he repudiate 
the idea of New England being " left out in the cold," by the 
great and generous west. They were bound together by too 
many ties of kindred, and of interest. We were one country, 
and one country we were ever to remain. 

A motion to adjourn for one hundred years, was modified 
so as to recommend an observance of the legal birthday of the 
town in 1877. 

A Committee was chosen to secure a copy of the Address 
for publication. 



66 

At a late hour of the afternoon, the exercises closed by 
singing the following original ode : — 

ODE. 



Dear Fryeburg, fair art thou ! 
Time writes upon thy brow 

No furrows deep ; 
Far in thy summer skies 
Thy glorious mountains rise, 
And clouds of thousand dyes 

Around them sleep. 

Serene thy rivers flow 
Through valleys green and low, 

With fringe of elm ; 
The shadows lightly play, 
And all is bright and gay. 
As in thine early day 

In Nature's realm. 

Still rolls thy blue lake on, 
Amid the forest lone, 

As long ago ; 
When wild the war-whoop rung 
The dark pine shades among. 
And from his cover sprung 

The savage foe. 

Gone are the valiant band 
That fought with heart and hand 

On that dread morn — 
Yet in their children brave 
Their spirit strong to save, 
That dies not in the grave 

Anew is born. 

) 
And tliose that earliest trod 
Thy green and virgin sod, 

The fair and strong — 
A hundred gliding years 
Have stilled the hopes and fears, 
And quenched in dust the tears 

Of that loved throng. 



66 

Yet while their dust remains 
Tliick strewn upon thy plains, 

Thy plains we love ; 
Thine "■ everlasting hills," 
Thy shadowy streams and rills, 
While warm the life blood thrills, 

Our hearts shall move. 



Levee at Academy Hall. 



In the evening the Webster Association of Fryeburg Acad- 
emy held a Levee at the Academy Hall, beautifully decorated 
with mottoes appropriate to the occasion. Some three or four 
hundred participated in the festivities. Interspersed with 
music from the Band were short speeches in response to the 
following sentiments : 

The Trustees of Fryeburg Academy — May their labor of 
Love be done wisely and well. Rev. D. B. Sewall. 

The Memory of Webster — It still lives. 

Our Volunteer Soldiers — They have gained imperishable 
honor on the battle fields of the war ; their heroic deeds and 
noble valor have rendered their names and memory sacred ; 
they are engaged in the noblest contest the ages CA^er saw. 

S. R. Crocker, Esq. 

The Alumni and the Alumnae — One and indivisible. 

Intelligent Patriotism — Our need and our glory. 

The Old Bay State and the Pine Tree State — Mother and 
Daughter — each delights to honor the " Sons of Maine." 

Rev. Samuel Souther. 

Our Sister Institutions — The cause, one ; our hearts, one. 

Dr. N. T. True. 



The Preceptors of Fryeburg Academy — To these classic 
halls a cordial welcome always awaits them. 

A. RiCHAEDSON, A. M. 

The Loved and the Lost — Their memories are ever fresh 
and fragrant. 

Our New Piano — May its keys be taught to send forth only 
the " concord of sweet sounds." 

Music by Miss Nellie A. Barrows. 

The Ladies — God bless them — they are a "joy forever." 

The Band — " Music hath charms." Yankee Doodle. 

With delightful, social intercourse, a generous banquet, 
music and song, the hours of the evening passed rapidly 
away, till at a late hour, all united in the old Song of " Home, 
Sweet Home," which terminated these most deeply interesting 
exercises of Fryeburg's Centennial. 



APPENDIX. 



A 

The division of the territory of Fryeburg among the pro- 
prietors was, as usual, a vexed question for many years. No 
less than five different attempts were made to equalize the 
different lots before the close of 1797, and even so late as 
1821, a sixth division was ordered of the odds and ends, or 
" scraps of land " still owned in common. Hence a plan of 
Fryeburg presents a most curious medley of lots with great 
diversities of size and shape, and when colored so as to dis- 
tinguish the several divisions, appears as if designed to illus- 
trate the various geological formations. 

No wonder that Fryeburg abounded in skillful surveyors. 
They must have had any amount of practice in establishing 
such combinations of lines. The subject i» so fully and com- 
pactly presented in the following paper, that it is inserted 
entire. Its preparation is due to the generous interest of Dr. 
I. B. Bradley. 

FROM THE PROPRIETORS' RECORDS OF THE TOWN- 
SHIP OF FRYEBURG. 

" In the House of Representatives^ Feb. 24, 1763." 

" The plan of a Township granted by this Court at their 
session in March, A. D. 1762, to Joseph Frye, Esq., and by 
him laid out at a place called Pigwacket, in the County of 
York ; bounded at the south corner to a spruce tree marked ; 
from thence north 45 ® west, by the needle of the instru- 
ment, 2172 rods to a beech tree marked; from thence north 
45 '^ east 2172 rods to a maple tree marked ; thence south 
45 ® east 2172 rods to a pine tree marked ; thence south 45 ® 
west to the first bound." 



70 

It appears by the records that, in 1763, the Proprietors 
" without being legally assembled to pass any votes with re- 
spect to the settlement of the township," " laid out upon the 
upland 57 house lots of 40 acres each," " and upon their 
intervale land 64 intervale lots of 20 acres each," and assigned 
to each and every right a 20 acre intervale lot, and to each 
and every riglit a 40 acre house lot, except seven rights, there 
being 64 rights in said township, including four for public 
uses. 

On Feb'y 2d, 1766, it seems that sixteen of the Proprietors 
applied to Hon. Benjamin Lynde,one of his Majesty's justices 
of the Peace, to call a meeting of the Proprietors " to be held 
at the dwelling house of. Mr. Ezekiel Walker, in Fryeburg, 
aforesaid, on the 28d of June next ensuing the date hereof, 
at 9 o'clock in the forenoon," — the object of said petition 
being, to have a meeting legally called, to do certain enumer- 
ated acts, and to determine how Proprietors' meetings should 
be called for the future. 

Benjamin Lynde did issue his warrant, in compliance with 
the foregoing petition, and ordered Joseph Frye, Esq., to call 
the meeting at the time and place specified ; the meeting was 
holden, and most of the house lots and intervale lots before 
mentioned, were confirmed to the Proprietors, to whom they 
were originally laid out, in 1763. 

At the same meeting the following vote was passed, viz : — 
" Voted that the aforesaid committee be and hereby are di- 
rected to lay out the meadows in said township that are now 
fit for mowing, into sixty-four shares, that shall be as near 
equal in value, one to the other, as possible," 

Also voted at the same meeting, to lay out a second division, 
upland lot of 40 acres, and a second division, intervale lot of 
30 acres to each right ; and in laying out said second division, 
of upland and intervale, the committee were to so lay out said 
second divisions, as to correct any inequalities in the first 
division, and thus to make each Proprietors' share of land in 
the first and second divisions of both upland and intervale of 
equal value. 

Also voted to lay out one acre of land near the easterly 
side of Bear Pond for a meeting house. 

Voted to lay out four acres adjoining said meeting house 
lot for a buiying ground. 

At a meeting holden July 27, 1767, is the first mention of 
roads in said township, when it was voted to lay out two 
open roads, the first to beghi at the most suitable place on the 



71 

town line, south of the river, and to run by the most conve- 
nient courses, on the same side of the river to Mr. Daniel 
Farrington's intervale land, being to the land now occupied 
by Caleb and Nathaniel Frye, Esq. ; the whole length of the 
road behig about 6 1-2 miles. 

The second beginning at the most suitable place on the 
state line, on the north side of the river, and running on the 
north side of the river and down the river by the most con- 
venient courses to the house lot of Andrew McMillan, No. 9, 
(probably 20,) the residence of the late Deacon Charles, being 
about 5 miles. 

At this meeting, July 27, 1767, twenty of the sixty-four 
meadow lots were assigned, and the remaining meadow lots 
being 44, were decided by lottery at an adjourned meeting 6 
days later, Aug. 3d. 

The first vote in relation to buildhig a grist mill was passed 
at this meeting, which provided to give the undertaker or 
builder, 60 acres of pine land including the mill privilege on 
Lovewell's brook, and 40 acres of pasture land adjacent, and 
12 shillings lawful money, to be paid in cash, or in work at 4 
shillings per day, to be raised out of each right in said town- 
ship, the four public rights excepted. 

It seems by the Proprietors' Records, that prior to this meet- 
ing, they had discovered that the line of New Hampshire cut 
off the west corner of their township, containing 4147 acres 
of land, which was surrendered by Joseph Frye to the Gov- 
ernment of Massachusetts Bay, and accepted by the "' Great 
and General Court," June 25, 1772, in consideration of which, 
said Court granted him the same amount of land, being 
known as Fryeburg Addition. 

On the 7th April, 1774, Fryeburg Addition was conveyed 
to the Proprietors, by Joseph Frye, and accepted by them. 

1774, Sept. 20th. The Proprietors voted to relay all their 
first and second divisions, upland and intervale lots, and 10 
acres meadow lots, so that each Proprietor should have 80 
acres upland and 60 acres of intervale. 

1785, April 11th. "Voted that the distinction between 
upland and intervale, shall be no longer kept up, except to 
complete the first and second divisions of intervale land to 60 
acres, and the deficiency of meadow lots. 

1787. At meeting on first Monday in December, voted that 
so much of said Proprietors' lands shall be laid out of upland 
or intervale, or both, as a third division, as shall make each 
original right (including the two divisions of upland run out) 



72 

equal to 180 acres of upland, and that the surplusage of the 
first and second divisions is to be considered as part of said 
third division. 

1794, Sept. 15. Voted to lay out a fourth division of Pro- 
prietors' lands, and that 100 acres be the mean quantity and 
that the committee lay, more or less, to qualify equal to the 
mean lot to each right. 

^ Thus it seems, at this time, each Proprietor was in posses- 
sion of 280 acres of land, mostly upland, 60 acres of inter- 
vale, and 10 acres of meadow ; these lands or lots of land, 
were not, by any means, of equal area, for where a lot of land 
was not equal in quality to the standard, it was made up in 
quantity, and this was what they called qualifications ; for 
instance, third divisions, as has been already stated, were 
intended to be 100 acres, of a particular quality of land, the 
best remaining after laying out the previous divisions. Samuel 
Osgood's third division is recorded as follows : — 

Acres. R. P. 
Contents, 217 1 12 

Qualification, 117 1 12 

Qualified Land, 100 00 

1797, April 21. At a Proprietors' meeting holden this day, 
a vote was passed to lay out a fifth division of lands among 
said Proprietors, and the committee made their return of the 
same on the 31st day of May next ensuing. It was evidently 
the belief of the committee that they had then divided all the 
lands of the Proprietary. This division was more unequal in 
quantity than any previous divisions, and considered of little 
value, for it was mostly divided without any survey, by merely 
assigning on the plan of the township to each Proprietor his 
share of said lands. 

Some of these fifth divisions were very small, being only 
thirty to forty acres in area, while others contain hundreds, 
and one, nearly one thousand acres. 

The Proprietors of most of these fifth divisions, considered 
them of so little value, that they conveyed them to t.vo or 
three of their number, and sent them to Boston, to exchange 
them for old and shop- worn, but serviceable goods. 

1821, Sept. 21. The Proprietors met and decided to lay out 
a sixth division, out of such scraps of land as might still, be 
Qwned by them in common and undivided. 



73 



ACT OF INCORPORATION. 

In the Year op our Lord, 1776. 

AN ACT for erecting a tract of land called Fryeburg, two 

thousand one hundred and seventy-two rods square, lying 

in the County of York, which was granted as a Township, 

to Joseph Frye, Esq., Anno Domini, seventeen hundred and 

sixty-two, and confirmed Anno Domini, seventeen hundred 

and sixty three, into a Town by the name of Fryeburg. 

Whereas, the inhabitants of that tract of land, consisting 
of Proprietors and Non-Proprietors, promiscuously settled 
thereon, having lately been united in ordaining a minister of 
the gospel among them, are desirous of uniting in the expense 
of his support, of building a meeting-house and other public 
charges of the place, but cannot lay a tax upon themselves 
for those purposes, till said tract of land is incorporated into 
a town. Therefore, 

Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives 
in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the 
same, that the aforesaid tract of land, originally bounded as 
followeth, viz : At the south corner to a spruce tree marked ; 
thence north forty-five degrees west (by the needle) two thou- 
sand one hundred and seventy-two rods to a beech tree 
marked ; thence north forty-five degrees east two thousand 
one hundred and seventy-two rods to a maple tree marked ; 
thence south forty-five degrees east two thousand one hundred 
and seventy-two rods to a pine tree marked; thence south 
forty-five degrees west to the first bounds — be and hereby is 
erected into a Town by the name of Fryeburg, excepting and 
reserving thereout four thousand one hundred and forty-seven 
acres of land lying in the west corner thereof, which the 
Great and General Court, in compliance with a petition of the 
above-named Joseph Frye, resolved to receive back, and in 
lieu thereof, granted him the same quantity of government's 
land with liberty to lay it out adjoining to the northward or 
northeastwardly part of his Township, as by said resolve, 
dated June the twenty-fifth, seventeen hundred and seventy- 
two, will appear ; and the inhabitants of said tract of land, 
(except as is above excepted,) be and hereby are invested 
with all powers, privileges and immunities, which other towns 
in this colony do enjoy. 

And be it further enacted, That Tristram Jordan, Esq., be 
and hereby is empowered to issue his warrant, directed to 
some principal inhabitant of said town, requesting him to 
10 



74 

warn the inhabitants thereof, who have a free hold according 
to charter, to meet at such time and place as shall be therein 
set forth, to choose all such officers as are or shall be required 
by law to manage the affairs of said town. 

In the House of Representatives, January 10th, 1777. This 
bill having had three several readings, passed to be enacted. 
SAMUEL FREEMAN, Speaker, P. T. 
In Council, January 11th, 1777. This bill having had two 
several readings, passed to be enacted. 

JOHN AVERY, Deputy Secretary. 
Consented to by the major part of the Council. 
A true copy. 

Attest : 

JOHN AVERY, Deputy Secretary. 



C 

In the archives of Massachusetts, at the State House, Bos- 
ton, may be found the several pay rolls of the companies or 
detachments who served on the Androscoggin. That of Lieut. 
Farrington and his twenty-two men, is in the hand writing of 
'Squire Ames, signed by himself, Richard Kimball and Samu.el 
Walker, Selectmen of Fryeburg. 

It was my purpose to give a fac simile of the Roll which is 
a model for exactness and economy, the whole amount 
which the Expedition drew from the Treasury being but X21, 
6s, 4d. The names of the men, which deserve to be kept in 
lasting remembrance, are as follows: — Stephen Farrington, 
Capt., Isaac Walker, Lieut., John Walker, John Farrington 
Abraham Bradley, Peter Astine, Abner Cliarles, Samuel 
Charles, Nathaniel Walker, James Parker, Benjamin Wiley, 
Jesse Walker, Joseph Knight, Jonathan Hutchins, Jun., 
Barnes Hazeltine, Isaac Abbott, Jr., John Gordon, John 
Smith Sanborn, John Stephens, Jr., Joseph Greeley Swan, 
Oliver Barron, Hugh Gordon, Simeon Abbott. They marched 
the 4th of August, and returned the 8th, leaving Jonathan 
Hutchings, Jr., John Gordon, and John Stephens, Jr., as a 
guard. / 

On the 12th a second detachment of twenty-four men 
from Fryeburg, with six from Bridgton, marched " to guard 
the frontiers on Androscoggin river," led by Nathaniel 
Hutchings, John Evans being second. Still a third company, 
with John Evans in command, took their post on the Andro- 



76 

scoggin Sept. 16tli, and kept guard till the winter snows laid 
to rest all fears of invasion. These three several bodies of 
troops were composed largely of the same men, with some 
interchange to accommodate the farming operations of the 
fall. The total expense is £262, Ts, Id. 

A fourth Pay Roll is headed as follows : — " A Pay Roll for 
a company of men commanded by Lieut. Stephen Farrington 
raised in the County of York and Cumberland, for the 
defence thereof, agreeably to Resolve of the Genero.l Court of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, July 5, 1782, who took 
their station at a New Township, called Sudbury-Canada." 

This more formidable expedition kept the borders in quiet 
until winter, and was undoubtedly the last effort in New Eng- 
land to repel Indian invasion. 



The part Fryeburg has borne in the present struggle for 
the life of our country, is shown by the following honorable 
record. It was hoped to give some sketch of those who have 
so nobly fallen, but the material has not been furnished. 

Reg't. 

13th, Charles Andrews, (died.) 

12th, Georsje Austhi, " 

12th, JohirP. Barker, 

17tli, Webster Barker, " 

12th, Willard Barker, 

12th, Charles H. Bragdon, 

23d, Richard Bradley, 

16th, Levi Butters, 

23d, Humphrey A. Chadbourne, 

23d, Stephen Chandler, 

ITth, Frank C. Charles, 

17th, Moses L. Charles, 

12th, Sewall C. Charles, 

12th, Stephen Charles, 

23d, Walter Charles, 

17th, Enoch S. Chase, 

13th, Abner A. Cole, 

12th, Tlionias D. Cook, 

12th, William W. Divine, (died.) 

23d, Andrew J. Eastman, 

23d, James Eaton, 

12th, Seymour A. Farrington, 

12th. Seth Farrington, (Capt.) 

9th, John C. Fellows, (died.) 
23d, Jos. Frye, jr., 
11th, William h! Frye, 
11th, Anjavine Gray, 

.5th, Mellville Gray, 

9th, Richard R. Greenland, 



Reg't. 

23d, James M. How, (Lieut.) 
17th, Simeon C. How, 
12th, Samuel Ilsley, (died.) 
12th, James T. Jenner, 
12th, Andrew Kenison, jr., 
17th, Patrick Lawless, 
23d, Harris A. P. Lewis, 
17th, Francis A. Long, 
23d, Chas. H. Lovis, 
23d, Joshua Mclntire, 
23d, Oliver G. W. Mclntire, 

9th, Samuel F. Mclntire, 

7th, Joseph L. Mitchell, 
17th, Sidnev A. Morton, 
17th, AVm. JB. Morton, 
11th, Lozien Poor, 
17th, Albion Richardson, 
23d, Benj. C. Seavey, 
12th, Marcus M. Smart, 
23d, William T. Smart, 
23d, Abiel F. Smith, 
17th, Daniel Smith, jr., 

9th, James Smith, 
17th, Ivory Snow, 
17th, Samuel C. Stanley, 
23d, John P. Stevens, 
23d, John W. Telibetts, 
17th, Allied E. Thomas, 

9th, Benj. Thompson, 



76 



23d, Gilson A. Hall, 

9th, Samuel H. Harnden, 
23d, Enoch W. B. Hobbs, accident- 
ally killed. 
17th, Samuel E. Holden, 
17th, James G. Holt, 

9th, Thos. K. Holt, 



17th, Alden B. Walker, 
17th, Joseph C. Walker, 
23d, Wiley Walker, 
23d, James E. Webster, 
17th, Joseph Wiley, 
23d, Stephen J. Wiley, 
12th, Sullivan J. Willey. 



Drafted Men. 

Henry Andrews, 

Ira Berry, 

John Bullard, [ 

Under the Call of Oct. 17, 1863 



I Albion p. Cobb, (died.) 
I Georare Lord. 



Webster Ela, 
Samuel Frye, 
Samuel F. Frye, 
William S. Heald, 
Lewis C. Hobbs, 
Jos. H. Johnson, 
Asa S. Mclntire, 



Harrison G. Morton, 
G. H. Richardson, 
Reuben H. Small, 
John P. Stevens, 
Geo. W. Thompson, 
Dexter Walker, 
Stephen J. Wilej^ 



Ebenezer Pickering, 

George Richardson, 

Reuben W. Shirley, 

John W. Towle. Lost part of his hand 
at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, '62. 

Isaac Walk(u', 

Jonathan Webster, 

John Webster. Fell on board Gunboat 
while forcing the passage of the 
Mississippi below IS'ew Orleans. 

John H. Wiley, 

William Wiley. 



The following citizens of Fryeburg have enlisted in regi- 
ments out of the State, or have been in the regular service of 
the army or navy. 

John Andrews, (died.) 
George W. Cook, 
Orland Day, 
John L. Eastman, 
Seth W. Eastman, 
Daniel B. Gray, 
John C. Gray, 
Augustus Lord, 
Charles Lord, 
Enoch Lord, 
Charles Mansfield, 
Charles Osgood, 

Charles H. Powers, (Lieut.) Fell at 
Chancellorsville, May 3, '63. 

An obituary notice of Lieut. Powers in the Oxford Demo- 
crat of July 24, 1863, gives the chief incidents in his life as 
follows : — " Born in Bridgton, March '37. In '52 removed to 
Fryeburg — left us in '56 for Western Pennsylvania — whore he 
had just been admitted to the practice of law, when in Aug. 
'61, he enlisted in the 105th Penn. Regiment. He was pro- 
moted to be 1st Lieut. Feb. '62 — ' participated in the battles 
6f Malvern Hill, Bristoe's Station, Bull Run (2d,) Fredericks- 
burg and Chancellorsville, where he so nobly offered his life a 
sacrifice upon the altar of his country.' The highest testimo- 
nials to his character and conduct are given by his brother 
officers." 



77 

Had friends furnished the material it would have been 
pleasant to give some brief sketches of the brothers, An- 
drews, both of whom though not falling in the battle field, 
gave up their lives for principles of liberty which they had 
early learned from a father's precept and example ; — of Joseph 
Colby Walker — the sturdy son of a worthy sire — and who in 
person and character brought back to us many of the choicest 
traits of the grand-father, whose name he bore ; — of Barker 
and Webster, Fellows, Cobb and Divine, whose common sac- 
rifices show that we are but one people, though our blood 
may be from different sources — and that through this crucible 
of common sufferings we are being fused into one nationality 
— all antipathies of race blotted out — and all traces of clan- 
ship forgotten — the great principles of human equality and 
man's common brotherhood, forever established. Such a re- 
sult will be worth all the sacrifice and suffering through which 
it is attained. 



The following letter from Daniel Webster, while at Frye- 
burg, Avill show some of the characteristics of the place as he 
saw it. It corresponds exactly with the account which his 
fellow lodger, Mr. McGaw, gives of the business and social life 
in Fryeburg, sixty years ago. One thing is worthy of notice, 
Mr. Webster found at Fryeburg a volume, which could not be 
obtained in the Libraries of Dartmouth. The letter is the 
more willingly inserted, as the parts referring especially to 
Fryeburg, are omitted in the published letters of Mr. Webster. 
Mr. Webster to Mr. Merrill, Hanover, N. H. 

Fryeburg, June 7, 1802. 

My Dear Friend. I have frequently taken my pen to write 
to you since I have arrived here, and have 'as often laid it 
down again without executing my purpose. The truth is, I 
was willing to write you something a little better than my 
correspondents generally have the fortune to receive. 

But after all I am commencing in my old way, resolved not 
to delay till chance might inspire me with an idea worth your 
reading, lest you should suppose me backward in entering 



78 

into a correspondence which I contemplate with pleasure. You 
must therefore console yourself by reflecting that correspond- 
ence is a kind of commerce where the greatest gain per cent, 
uniformly attaches to the greatest capital ; and that there is 
as much to be learned in writing a good letter as in reading 
one. Besides, you will remember that I am in Pigwacket, a 
most savage name, and you will, therefore, suppose a most 
savage country. Whenever, therefore, I am dull and blun- 
dering, you must not charge the fault upon me, but upon 
Pigivacket. Thus I shall shift much responsibility from my 
own shoulders. 

I will, if you please, devote this to giving you some little 
account of my situation, business, amusements, and so forth, 
and beg of you a descriptio:i of yours. Whatever relates to 
my school you can guess in the general, and particulars can- 
not be interesting. This village is new but growing, already 
much crowded with Mercha.its, Doctors, and Lawyers. There 
are here a good number of men of information and conversi- 
ble manners, whom I visit "svithout ceremony and chat with as 
I should with you and Bingliam. Among them are Mr. Dana, 
whom you know, and Mr. McGaw, who boards and lodges 
with me. Fame has told me, (tliough she is said to be a no- 
torious liar,) that you are a finished gallant ; it will be natural, 
therefore, for you to inquire about the number and beauty of 
the misses. You know that new towns have usually more 
males than females, and old commercial towns the reverse. 
In Salem and Newburyport, I am told, the majority of females 
is immense. When I resided at Exeter, I thought petticoats 
would overrun the nation. In Fryeburg, I hope our sex will 
continue the mastery, though the female squadron is by no 
means contemptible. I have seen nearly thirty white muslins 
trail across a ball room on an evening. In point of beauty I 
do not feel competent to decide. I cannot calculate the pre- 
cise value of a dimple^ nor estimate the charms of an eyebrow, 
yet I see nothing repulsive in the appearance of Maine misses. 
Wlien Mr. McGaw told me he would introduce me to the 
Pigwacket Constellation, it sounded so oddly that I could not 
tell whether he was going to sliow me Virgo or Ursa Major, 
yet I had charity to put it down for the former, and have 
found no reason to alter my decision. Being a pedagogue 
and having many of the ladies in school, I cannot set out in a 
bold progress of gallantry, though I now and then make one 
of them my best bow and say a few things, piano, as the 
musicians have it. 



79 

When I go into the study of a friend, I look about and 
enquire for the books he is reading. To save you that trouble 
I will tell you my reading at present. I think it may be 
advantageous to communicate mutually an account of our 
studies, and reciprocate any new ideas that are worth it. Am 
now upon Williams' Vermont, which I never read before. It 
is my object to investigate some facts relating to the political 
history of the United States. I have been perusing, as an 
amusement, the " Pursuits of Literature," the book which 
has excited so much curiosity among the learned, and called 
down so much condemnation from the democracy. I am not 
certain you can read it, because I do not recollect having 
seen it at Hanover. 1 think it is well worth a reading. The 
sentiments of the Poem, itself, and the abundance of Notes, 
bring to my memory Sheridan's elegant metaphor of " a neat 
rivulet of type murmuring through a meadow of margin." 

Report has just reached me that the Marshal of New 
Hampshire, is removed. I confess I did not much expect it, 
but these are Jefferson's doings, and they are marvellous in 
our eyes. 

Adieu, my good friend, 

D. WEBSTER. 

P. S. I congratulate the people of Hanover on the election 
of their Anniversary Orator, and wish him better success 
than some of his predecessors. 

Wednesday morning, June 9th. Since I wrote the within, 
which I had intended for the mail, Messrs Hall and Whit- 
man have called on me. I am quite sure you did not know 
of the opportunity of sending me by them. They tell me 
that politics stand one hundred and twenty to fourteen, — 
good, — good, — the sun is everywhere rising, — the waning orb 
of democracy must soon be eclipsed, — the Penumbra begins 
to come on already. Pray put a line in next mail for one 
who is much your friend. D. W. 



— - - - — ^^^■^■-■^ — — ■— ■— ^■^. 



THE 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 



OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 



FRYEBXJRG, MiE., 



WITH THE 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS, 



By rev. SAMUEL SOUTHER, 



OF WORCESTER, MASS. 



WOKCESTER: 

PKINTED BY TYLEE& SEAGKAVE, 

Spy Job Office, 212 Main Street. 






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